How Do Ants Live in a 2d World?
WouterWhether you are working on a robot or an artificial intelligence program, ants can be your inspiration. Their unique ability to navigate in two dimensions has inspired several technological advancements, including camera systems that mimic their behavior.
In the real world, ants are a key component in ecosystems. They play a large role in food webs and climate change. Their ability to navigate in two dimensions could help inspire the development of advanced robotic vision systems. But is their vertical representation of the world as they know it accurate?
To answer that question, scientists looked to the desert ant. These ants tested the merits of three hypotheses about 3-D navigation. They performed a 2D model of an itinerary and tested for the true 3D route. They also performed a plethora of experiments on the path-integration of the ant’s itineraries.
The true 3D route was not as smooth as the 2-D route. In addition, the two-dimensional ant had to traverse a plane of flat ground, which meant that they were not able to perceive curved edges or discover up and down. They also did not collect the requisite negative vertical component during forced descent.
The ant also performed a more than modest number of pranks, such as leaving pheromones on the surfaces of objects. These pheromones would increase the likelihood that other foraging ants would follow their pheromone trail.
Ultimately, it was a matter of weighing the costs and benefits of each. For example, ants might be more likely to follow a pheromone trail if they can do so without touching the object.
