There's no place like home
Rachel Kline · Science · 2019
Robotic Navigation![Figure][1] AntBot finds its way home without using GPS. IMAGE: DUPEYROUX ET AL. GPS is not always available, let alone perfect. Dupeyroux et al. created the six-legged AntBot, which integrated multiple data sources—but not GPS—to track its position. This was inspired by the multisensory homing method of desert ants, which does not use pheromones because of the destructive desert heat. After a random walk, AntBot went directly back to its starting point by combining tracked distance with directional data from two sensors that polarized and detected light. AntBot is sensitive to ultraviolet light, which means it can get home even under a cloudy sky. Sci. Robot. 4 , eaau0307 (2019). [1]: pending:yes