Robots Find Out How Ants and Small Creatures Pass On Culture and Legacies

Scientists from the University of Bristol have developed a small robot to teach ants and in turn, the ants were able to teach others in a unique experiment with the potential to replace one day the way humans are taught. The team built the robot to emulate the behavior of rock ants that use one-to-one tuition. Whenever an ant finds a much better nest, it teaches the route to another and the transfer of knowledge goes on to the entire ant community. Here researchers replaced the teacher ant with a small robot and taught an ant in tandem running along to a new nest. The pupil ant was not only able to learn the route but also found its way back home and then led a tandem run with another ant to the new nest.