Ant trails - an example for robots to follow?

Author

Russell, R.Andrew

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Syst. Eng., Monash Univ., Clayton, Vic., Australia

Volume

4

fYear

1999

fDate

1999

Firstpage

2698

Abstract

In order to operate effectively in their variable and unstructured real world environment insects employ many strategies. Generating and detecting odours is the basis of several of these strategies. It seems certain that similar techniques can be implemented to improve the competence of robotic systems. This paper describes a project to investigate transferring the pheromone trail tracking capabilities of ants to robotic systems. A robotic ant has been built and equipped with a pair of odour sensing `antennae´. This system has been programmed with a trail following algorithm observed in the ant Lasius fuliginosus. The design of this robot, the control algorithm and results of odour trail following experiments are presented

Keywords

gas sensors; mobile robots; navigation; tracking; mobile robot; odour sensing; path following; pheromone trail tracking; robotic ant; trail following algorithm; Biology computing; Chemicals; Insects; Intelligent robots; Intelligent sensors; Navigation; Recruitment; Robot control; Robot sensing systems; Systems engineering and theory;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Robotics and Automation, 1999. Proceedings. 1999 IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Detroit, MI

ISSN

1050-4729

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5180-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ROBOT.1999.774005

Filename

774005