How can insects fly so far away from home and still find their way? The answer to this question is not only related to biology, but also to artificial intelligence for making miniature autonomous robots.
, According to foreign media reports, drone researchers at the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands were inspired by biological discoveries to create an autonomous navigation strategy inspired by insects for miniature lightweight robots.
These biological findings refer to how ants visually recognize their surroundings and combine this with counting steps to return home safely.
, This strategy allows such robots to return home after a long trajectory while requiring very little calculation and memory (0.
65 kilobytes per 100 meters).
In the future, micro autonomous robots could have a wide range of uses, from monitoring inventory in warehouses to finding gas leaks in industrial sites.
The researchers published relevant research results in the journal Science Robotics on July 17, 2024.
, Stand up for micro robots, which range from tens of grams to hundreds of grams, have the potential to achieve interesting applications in the real world.
Because of their light weight, they are very safe even if they accidentally hit someone.
At the same time, due to their small size, they can walk in narrow areas.
If micro robots can be manufactured inexpensively, they can be deployed in large numbers, allowing them to quickly cover large areas, such as early pest or disease detection in greenhouses.
However, it is very difficult for such microscopic robots to operate on their own because their resources are extremely limited compared to large robots.
A major obstacle is that they must be able to navigate on their own.
To do this, robots can get help from external infrastructure.
They can use location estimates from outdoor GPS satellites or indoor wireless communication beacons.
, But relying on such infrastructure is often not advisable.
GPS is not available indoors and can become very inaccurate in chaotic environments such as urban canyons.
Installing and maintaining beacons in indoor spaces is expensive or impossible at all, such as in search and rescue scenarios.
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