Ant Navigation Could Help Self-Driving Systems

[FamTimes reporter Park Joo-hye] Ants use the position of the sun and visual information about their surroundings to determine their routes. A study has found that this method of navigation could help improve navigation systems for self-driving vehicles.

Antoine Wystrach, a researcher at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Paris, said, “We discovered that ants can separate the direction their bodies are moving from the direction they are traveling. Regardless of which way their bodies are currently facing, if they want to go north, they can maintain a northward course as they travel.”

Wystrach says this makes the ant’s tiny brain remarkably sophisticated.

He added, “Ants can orient themselves in more sophisticated ways than we thought and can integrate information obtained elsewhere to navigate. This implies the transfer of information and synergy between different regions of the brain.”

University of Edinburgh researcher Barbara Webb said the study could help improve navigation systems for self-driving vehicles.

She explained, “Ants have very small brains—smaller than the head of a pin. Even so, they navigate well in many difficult situations. Ants can even travel backward.”

She added, “Understanding ants’ behavior has given us new insights into brain function and prompted ideas for building robotic systems that mimic their abilities.”

Reporter Park Joo-hye, fam1@pcss.co.kr