  We present a method for the control of robot swarms using two subsets of
robots: a larger group of simple, oblivious robots (which we call the workers)
that is governed by simple local attraction forces, and a smaller group (the
guides) with sufficient mission knowledge to create and displace a desired
worker formation by operating on the local forces of the workers. The guides
coordinate to shape the workers like smart particles by changing their
interaction parameters. We study the approach with a large scale experiment in
a physics based simulator with up to 5000 robots forming three different
patterns. Our experiments reveal that the approach scales well with increasing
robot numbers, and presents little pattern distortion. We evaluate the approach
on a physical swarm of robots that use visual inertial odometry to compute
their relative positions and obtain results that are comparable with
simulation. This work lays the foundation for designing and coordinating
configurable smart particles, with applications in smart materials and
nanomedicine.
