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Robot in an anthill

11.04.2013

The work of French scientists shows that to perform a variety of tasks and organize such complex systems as an anthill, the simplest software and hardware is enough. Scientists at the French research center CNRS have created a computer algorithm that allows robots to mimic the behavior of an ant colony. The work of French scientists shows that the simplest software and hardware is enough to perform a variety of tasks and organize such complex systems as an anthill.

The interaction between individual individuals and individual objects plays a crucial role in the formation of self-organizing collective behavior. Recent studies have shown that ants move through intricate paths and corridors inside and outside the anthill, guided by four different types of information.

Some species of ants are able to see and navigate by the Sun or landmarks along their path. Other ants even use a kind of inertial navigation system: they summarize motion vectors by measuring the number of steps and turns of the body. Ants can also use social information, for example, by the presence of foragers loaded with food, determine the direction to food or find a path following certain traces (pieces of leaves, seeds, etc.).

The last type of information, the fourth, is the most interesting and lies in the very structure of the ant trails. In some ant species, transport networks have a strictly defined pattern: the average angle between the paths emerging from the center of the anthill is symmetrical and lies in the range of 50-100 degrees, depending on the ant species. Thus, when the ant moves towards the exit from the anthill, it encounters a symmetrical bifurcation (separation) of paths and corridors. On the way back, the ant sees the opposite picture: an asymmetric bifurcation. To find the shortest route, the ant simply chooses the right turn angle and always follows the right direction.

This simple natural mechanism has a huge practical potential for robotics and transport networks. In order to demonstrate how effective the elementary natural algorithm of ant navigation is, scientists made a mock-up of anthill passages from cardboard. In passages 9 cm wide, they launched the simplest robots that worked in accordance with ant logic. Robots with dimensions of 22x21x20 mm were equipped with 4 infrared sensors to detect obstacles. There was also a photodiode for measuring light gradients (acting as a pheromone) and a Ni-MH battery with an energy reserve to work for 3,5 hours. The "brain" of the robot was a simple PIC16LF877 microcontroller with 8 KB of EPROM memory and 368 bytes of RAM.

As a result, the robots confidently navigated the maze using all types of insect behavior, including search (wandering in search of the correct route) and evasion (bypassing an obstacle along a different route). The study by French scientists not only provides new knowledge about the behavior of insect colonies, but also allows the use of effective natural algorithms in existing technogenic transport networks.

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