Fire ant colonies could inspire robot swarms

Raw video: Kingston Police Department in North Carolina share footage of thousands of insects bunched together to create raft on top of post-Hurricane Florence floodwaters to protect queen. Aside from the stings and ruined picnics, fire ants are famous for their ability to swarm together and self –assemble bridges, ladders, and even floating rafts. Researchers have now figured out the statistical rules that govern how fire ants form these structures, and the new study could help scientists build swarming, tiny shape-shifting robots. A team from the University of Colorado at Boulder wanted to learn how the self–made rafts, bridges, and ladders– which can take hundreds to thousands of fire ants to form– can change shape in a matter of seconds and maintain a rubber-like flexibility. "Fire ants are a great subject of study because they display collective intelligence and they're also macroscopic, which makes them relatively easy to observe and study," lead study author Franck Vernerey told Fox News.