How ants are inspiring tomorrow’s autonomous drones

This drone locates itself in the environment and automatically returns to its starting point. — Delft University of Technology

Scientists at The Netherlands' Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) have drawn inspiration from the behavior of ants to develop a novel navigation technique for lightweight drones. The idea is for these devices to be able to travel long distances and automatically find their way back, without GPS, but with knowledge of their environment.

Ants are able to find their way back thanks to biological mechanisms, which directly inspired these scientists. In fact, ants visually recognise their surroundings while counting their steps, enabling them to return to their starting point with relative ease. The researchers wanted to apply these principles to small drones, using algorithms requiring both very little computational power and memory.