MIAMI – Despite their tiny size, ants are sophisticated navigators that can find their way even while walking backwards, and these skills could help inspire better robots, scientists say. The findings in this week's edition of the journal Current Biology are based on a colony of desert ants that were studied to see how they navigated home while carrying pieces of a cookie. Carrying small bits, they walked forward. But with larger pieces, they dragged them backwards toward their nest, occasionally dropping the food to check the sun's position and reorient themselves. Researchers said this practice of checking the environment and matching their progress against their memories of their surroundings shows the insects' mental capacity is more complex than previously thought.