All roads lead to the mound

Опубликовано 21 июня 2016, 20:00

Like the Roman Empire at its peak, a successful ant colony relies on an effective network of roads that facilitate the movement of its powerful army and industrious population across a vast territory. Fifty years ago, E. O. Wilson discovered the chemical nature of these transportation networks comprised of pheromone trails laid by the colony's workers. His work paved the way for five decades of study on the incredibly efficient organization of ant colonies, based on simple behaviors, multiple interactions and powerful scents. In this talk, I will review recent discoveries from field, experimental and theoretical works on the construction and functioning of ant transportation networks. I will highlight the latest findings on traffic organization along ant chemical trails, the topology and geometry of these networks, and the development of support structures on uneven terrains. Finally, I will discuss prospective applications of the ants' "chemical logic" in operation research and collective robotics, with a particular focus on the flexibility of ant trail systems and their ability to integrate and process multiple sources of information.