Every weekend in the summer, the “science ticket” sets out to discover the solutions provided by living organisms to help us solve our problems. This is the principle of biomimicry or bioinspiration. Close-up of the ants’ GPS, which does not need a satellite to work.
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The desert ant, which lives between the South of Spain and North Africa, moves without using the traces left by these congeners since the pheromones are not resistant to the climate. Three researchers from the CNRS and the University of Aix-Marseille looked into the little animal. They work in a laboratory that has been studying insect movements and navigation for over thirty years.
The trio of researchers followed the desert ant to build a robot capable of returning to its starting point without GPS. This ant is able to travel a kilometer to get food, and to return to its starting point. She has three tools to orient herself. She uses light to set a course. With the top of her eyes, she manages to pick up elements in the light of the atmosphere that we humans do not see, and which help her to find her way.
But at the same time, she looks at the ground to assess the distance she has traveled. And above all, incredible thing, she counts the number of steps she takes. These elements served as the basis for the design of a robot. It’s called Ant bot. He is able with these tools to cover fifteen meters and return to his starting point with only seven centimeters of margin of error.
The military is interested in this research which could be used for targeting binoculars. The Stellantis automotive group is looking at how to add this tool to the panoply of guidance instruments for the autonomous car. Finally, it could serve as a fallback if the three current robot location techniques fail. The ant technique would be the parachute of the GPS in the event of an industrial crash.