Science Daily February 13, 2019
To navigate safely in hostile environment, desert ants assess their direction from the polarized pattern of skylight and judge the distance traveled based on both a stride-counting method and the optic flow. Using this concept a team of researchers in France has designed AntBot equipped with an optical compass used to determine its direction by means of polarized light, and by an optical movement sensor directed to the sun to measure the distance covered. Armed with this information, AntBot was able to explore its environment and to return on its own to its base, with precision of up to 1 cm after having covered a total distance of 14 meters. Using this “celestial compass,” AntBot measures its direction with 0.4° precision in clear or cloudy weather. Weighing only 2.3 kg, this robot has six feet for increased mobility, allowing it to move in complex environments precisely where deploying wheeled robots and drones can be complicated (disaster areas, rugged terrain, exploration of extraterrestrial soils, etc.). The navigation precision achieved with minimalist sensors proves that bio-inspired robotics has immense capacity for innovation…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Antbot, the first walking robot that moves without GPS. Credit: Julien Dupeyroux, ISM (CNRS/AMU)