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An Insect-bot Mimics Desert Ants by Looking at the Sky To Navigate (technologyreview.com)

Posted by msmash on from the no-GPS-needed dept.

From a report: A new robot can navigate without GPS, using the same light-sensing abilities as desert ants. Desert ants survive in searingly hot conditions in the Sahara. They sometimes have just a few minutes to forage for food before they risk burning to death. As a result, they are very efficient navigators, using bands of polarized light, invisible to humans, to get around. They also carefully count their steps. These two tactics help to keep them alive. AntBot: The bot, described this week in Science Robotics, is fitted with UV light sensors that can detect polarized light from the sun. This is known as a "celestial compass" and is designed to mimic the way desert ants see the sun's light. This helps it work out the direction it's going in. The robot also counts its steps, much like its desert muse. In tests, it successfully managed to complete an outdoor homing task, where it was required to go to several checkpoints and then return to a fixed location within a range of 14 meters.

17 comments

  1. So what does it do on a hazy day? by rlitman · · Score: 1

    Clouds would seem to break this solar navigation system just like any other.

    1. Re:So what does it do on a hazy day? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Basic reading : " using bands of polarized light, invisible to humans, to get around. They also carefully count their steps. These two tactics help to keep them alive. AntBot: The bot, described this week in Science Robotics, is fitted with UV light sensors that can detect polarized light from the sun. This is known as a "celestial compass" and is designed to mimic the way desert ants see the sun's light. This helps it work out the direction it's going in. The robot also counts its steps, much like its desert muse"

    2. Re:So what does it do on a hazy day? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No. It works on cloudy days too. https://www.seeker.com/legendary-viking-sunstone-navigation-solved-1765489280.html

      Look up Viking Sunstone Navigation

    3. Re:So what does it do on a hazy day? by bodog · · Score: 1

      Thanks for this informative bit about sun-stones and polarization!

  2. What, no AI? by home-electro.com · · Score: 1

    I can't believe these are not powered by AI.

    1. Re: What, no AI? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know! Weird. I have a marble that rolls down hill perfectly. It has no visible logic components at all

    2. Re: What, no AI? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean our new revolutionary AI marble, using amazing machine learning method of gradient descent?

    3. Re: What, no AI? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That term just got copylefted by elons cousin, someone told me i heard

  3. MARS ROVER IS DEAD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can we get a Slashdot story on the fact that the Mars Opportunity rover has been declared officially MIA?

    1. Re:MARS ROVER IS DEAD by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      Why? We have had a lot of coverage about this on the general media circuit. There have been articles before it stating they cannot talk to it.
      What new can Slashdot bring to this?

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    2. Re:MARS ROVER IS DEAD by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

      And it's last words were, "My battery is low and it's getting dark"... funny, I didn't know rovers spoke English!

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  4. Don't we have by fredrated · · Score: 2

    enough ants already?

    1. Re:Don't we have by antdude · · Score: 1

      never! :P

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  5. Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This company just invented dead reckoning!

  6. Humans can also see light polarization by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    However, the effect is weak:
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haidinger%27s_brush

  7. Sahabot was developed in Zurich more than 20 years by alfino · · Score: 2

    Look up Sahabot developed at our lab at the University of Zurich in the 90s. Nothing new. I don't understand why people decide to go public on their duplication of someone else's work.

    --
    echo mailto: !#^."<*>"|tr "<*> mailto:" net@madduck
  8. so what by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My old sanyo counted my steps too