In this talk, I will first highlight the challenges related to the design, control, modeling, performance evaluation, and optimization of distributed, mobile, resource-constrained robotic systems. In particular, I will describe a specific distributed control method based on multiple modeling levels which has provided up to date interesting results in several case studies concerned with distributed sensing and manipulation missions, investigated either by us or other research groups worldwide. I will support the discussion with a few concrete examples concerned with aggregation and assembling tasks. Finally, I will revisit our engineering methodology and outline its similarities, differences, and possible links with the world of social insects.