Collectively named "aerobes," the floating orbs that the New York-based artist Anicka Yi has created to inhabit the cavernous space are called "planulae" (the hairy, bulbous ones) and "xenojellies" (the ones with patterned tentacles). They make up the installation "Anicka Yi: In Love with the World," which opened this week.

Inspired by ocean life forms and mushrooms, the helium-filled shapes move around using rotors and a small battery pack. Together, they create an "ecosystem" within the museum, Yi said in a press statement, interacting with their environment and visitors, and displaying individual and group behaviors.

The robots will respond to the space and people around them by receiving information from electronic sensors positioned around the venue. The signals affect them individually and as a group so that they will behave differently upon each encounter.

"Like a bee's dance or an ant's scent trail, the aerobes communicate with each other in ways we cannot understand," a Tate Modern statement described.

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