{"213701":{"#nid":"213701","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Principles of Ant Locomotion Could Help Future Robot Teams Work Underground","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFuture teams of subterranean search and rescue robots may owe their success to the lowly fire ant, a much despised insect whose painful bites and extensive networks of underground tunnels are all-too-familiar to people living in the southern United States.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/youtu.be\/3TQzY_HRAgE\u0022\u003EWatch\u003C\/a\u003E a YouTube video of this project.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBy studying fire ants in the laboratory using video tracking equipment and X-ray computed tomography, researchers have uncovered fundamental principles of locomotion that robot teams could one day use to travel quickly and easily through underground tunnels. Among the principles is building tunnel environments that assist in moving around by limiting slips and falls, and by reducing the need for complex neural processing.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAmong the study\u2019s surprises was the first observation that ants in confined spaces use their antennae for locomotion as well as for sensing the environment.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOur hypothesis is that the ants are creating their environment in just the right way to allow them to move up and down rapidly with a minimal amount of neural control,\u201d said \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.physics.gatech.edu\/user\/daniel-goldman\u0022\u003EDaniel Goldman\u003C\/a\u003E, an associate professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.physics.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Physics\u003C\/a\u003E at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and one of the paper\u2019s co-authors. \u201cThe environment allows the ants to make missteps and not suffer for them. These ants can teach us some remarkably effective tricks for maneuvering in subterranean environments.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe research was reported May 20 in the early edition of the journal \u003Cem\u003EProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences\u003C\/em\u003E. The work was sponsored by the National Science Foundation\u2019s Physics of Living Systems program.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn a series of studies carried out by graduate research assistant Nick Gravish, groups of fire ants (\u003Cem\u003ESolenopsis invicta\u003C\/em\u003E) were placed into tubes of soil and allowed to dig tunnels for 20 hours. To simulate a range of environmental conditions, Gravish and postdoctoral fellow Daria Monaenkova varied the size of the soil particles from 50 microns on up to 600 microns, and also altered the moisture content from 1 to 20 percent.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile the variations in particle size and moisture content did produce changes in the volume of tunnels produced and the depth that the ants dug, the diameters of the tunnels remained constant \u2013 and comparable to the length of the creatures\u2019 own bodies: about 3.5 millimeters.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIndependent of whether the soil particles were as large as the animals\u2019 heads or whether they were fine powder, or whether the soil was damp or contained very little moisture, the tunnel size was always the same within a tight range,\u201d said Goldman. \u201cThe size of the tunnels appears to be a design principle used by the ants, something that they were controlling for.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGravish believes such a scaling effect allows the ants to make best use of their antennae, limbs and body to rapidly ascend and descend in the tunnels by interacting with the walls and limiting the range of possible missteps.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIn these subterranean environments where their leg motions are certainly hindered, we see that the speeds at which these ants can run are the same,\u201d he said. \u201cThe tunnel size seems to have little, if any, effect on locomotion as defined by speed.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers used X-ray computed tomography to study tunnels the ants built in the test chambers, gathering 168 observations. They also used video tracking equipment to collect data on ants moving through tunnels made between two clear plates \u2013 much like \u201cant farms\u201d sold for children \u2013 and through a maze of glass tubes of differing diameters.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe maze was mounted on an air piston that was periodically fired, dropping the maze with a force of as much as 27 times that of gravity. The sudden movement caused about half of the ants in the tubes to lose their footing and begin to fall. That led to one of the study\u2019s most surprising findings: the creatures used their antennae to help grab onto the tube walls as they fell.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cA lot of us who have studied social insects for a long time have never seen antennae used in that way,\u201d said \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.biology.gatech.edu\/people\/michael-goodisman\u0022\u003EMichael Goodisman\u003C\/a\u003E, a professor in the Georgia Tech \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.biology.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Biology\u003C\/a\u003E and one of the paper\u2019s other co-authors. \u201cIt\u2019s incredible that they catch themselves with their antennae. This is an adaptive behavior that we never would have expected.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBy analyzing ants falling in the glass tubes, the researchers determined that the tube diameter played a key role in whether the animals could arrest their fall.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn future studies, the researchers plan to explore how the ants excavate their tunnel networks, which involves moving massive amounts of soil. That soil is the source of the large mounds for which fire ants are known.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile the research focused on understanding the principles behind how ants move in confined spaces, the results could have implications for future teams of small robots.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe problems that the ants face are the same kinds of problems that a digging robot working in a confined space would potentially face \u2013 the need for rapid movement, stability and safety \u2013 all with limited sensing and brain power,\u201d said Goodisman. \u201cIf we want to build machines that dig, we can build in controls like these ants have.\u201d \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhy use fire ants for studying underground locomotion?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThese animals dig virtually non-stop, and they are good, repeatable study subjects,\u201d Goodisman explained. \u201cAnd they are very convenient for us to study. We can go outside the laboratory door and collect them virtually anywhere.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThe research described here has been sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grant POLS 095765, and by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. The findings and conclusions are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the NSF.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECITATION\u003C\/strong\u003E: Nick Gravish, et al., \u201cClimbing, falling and jamming during ant locomotion in confined environments,\u201d (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013).\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResearch News\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E177 North Avenue\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAtlanta, Georgia\u0026nbsp; 30332-0181\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMedia Relations Contact\u003C\/strong\u003E: John Toon (404-894-6986)(\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jtoon@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ejtoon@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E)\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWriter\u003C\/strong\u003E: John Toon\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFuture teams of subterranean search and rescue robots may owe their success to the lowly fire ant, a much despised insect whose painful bites and extensive networks of underground tunnels are all-too-familiar to people living in the southern United States.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Future teams of subterranean robots could benefit from research into how ants move in confined spaces."}],"uid":"27303","created_gmt":"2013-05-19 20:52:53","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:14:16","author":"John Toon","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2013-05-20T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2013-05-20T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"213651":{"id":"213651","type":"image","title":"Confined Spaces Locomotion - 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