An Insect-bot Mimics Desert Ants by Looking at the Sky To Navigate (technologyreview.com) 17
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.
So what does it do on a hazy day? (Score:1)
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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 des
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No. It works on cloudy days too. https://www.seeker.com/legendary-viking-sunstone-navigation-solved-1765489280.html
Look up Viking Sunstone Navigation
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Thanks for this informative bit about sun-stones and polarization!
What, no AI? (Score:1)
I can't believe these are not powered by AI.
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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?
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Don't we have (Score:3)
enough ants already?
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never! :P
Sahabot was developed in Zurich more than 20 years (Score:3)
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.