Ants Give Inspiration for a Brand New GPS Idea: Without Satellites

Did you think that our technology was more sophisticated than an ant? Well, if you did, think
again, because on a summer field trip, students and their teacher from the University of
Sheffield discovered a new technology idea, and it was
from a very simple creature, too. That
creature was an ant. I know, I know. You’re
probably like: “I thought we already knew practically
everything about ants.” Well, that’s really not true,
despite the fact that if you told them they had a brain
the size of a pinhead, they’d think you were
telling them they were too full of themselves. So what
was the idea? Well, basically, they discovered that, in the words of Dr. Mangan, “[They] don’t
rely on pheromone trails like other ants, or GPS and 5G like current robots.” Well, how do they
do it then? Basically, they take mental “images” of what the area looks like, and then to find their
way back they simply have to recall the images and compare them with where they are! A robot
(developed in Sussex
University) (Not the one shown in
the photo) is something they
made with this technology. It
doesn’t require an unobstructed
closeness to the sky, unlike GPS:
It would work as well in a cave as
on a mountain. However, it has to
traverse a given route before it
can have it memorized.
Another thing they have made from
the desert ants is something called
AntBot (The robot in the photo). It
can count its steps relative to
the sun to determine its position up to a precision of 1 cm per 45 feet, as opposed to GPS,
which is a precision of 5 meters. However, there are still some challenges. They have not yet
found a way to make it waterproof, and it’s not calibrated to work at night. I’m very intrigued by
these ideas, and the future they hold for GPS’s!1

1
https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/ant-inspired-gps-navigation/