Robot teacher mimics ant communication

The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, saw the Bristol team mock up an ant habitat with two nests, with the ants inhabiting the one of deliberately inferior quality. A gantry was placed above the habitat, allowing a robot to travel between the lower quality nest to the better quality, unoccupied nest. Scent glands from a worker ant were attached to the robot to give it the pheromones of an ant teacher. The team then attempted to lead an ant to the new site using the robot.

“We waited for an ant to leave the old nest and put the robot pin, adorned with attractive pheromones, directly ahead of it,” explained Prof Nigel Franks from Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences. “The pinhead was programmed to move towards the new nest either on a straight path or on a beautifully sinuous one. We had to allow for the robot to be interrupted in its journey, by us, so that we could wait for the following ant to catch up after it had looked around to learn landmarks.