Next time you find yourself lost despite having a map and satellite navigation, spare a thought for the unfortunate ant that must take regular trips home to avoid losing its way. Dr Markus Knaden, from the University of Zurich, will report that a visit back to the nest is , for ants to reset their navigation equipment and avoid getting lost on foraging trips. "Knowledge about path integration and landmark learning gained from our experiments with ants has already been incorporated in autonomous robots. Including a 'reset' of the path integrator at a significant position could make the orientation of the robot even more reliable",
Ants that return from foraging journeys can use landmarks to find their way home, but in addition they have an internal backup system that allows them to create straight shortcuts back to the nest even when the outbound part of the forage run was very winding. This backup system is called the 'path integrator' and constantly reassesses the ant's position using an internal compass and measure of distance travelled....
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