Bionic Ants: The Factory Workers of the Future?

Ants might just be the perfect workers.

And if recent reports are to be believed, then Bionic ants the size of a human hand could one day be the factory operators of the future!

Don’t believe us? Then read on as we take a closer look at these awesome bionic ants.

Ant Antics

Small, yet mighty, ants are a force to be reckoned with. And when these little guys work together they’re capable of some pretty amazing feats.

Since the time of the great fable teller Aesop, these industrious insects have been used to symbolise the virtues of hard work.

This is something that hasn’t gone unnoticed either, and now robotics experts have emulated these tiny beasties to create an army of amazing bionic ants – know as BionicANTS.

These tiny bionic beasts come fully equipped with some pretty sharp looking pincers (used for gripping and manipulating objects), stereo cameras, sensors that feel the floor beneath their feet, and a face that bears more than just a hint of a grin!

Working Together

It’s not just the unique anatomy of ants that developers have attempted to copy either, it’s their remarkable cooperative behaviours too.

Just like the ants found in your back garden, these ant machines are able to work together in harmony to accomplish a variety of tasks, from the simple to the complex.

Each ant acts autonomously, but they’re also constantly in communication with one another via a radio module.

So, for example, say this army of ants was given the task of moving a particularly heavy object – if this object was too weighty for one ant to move on their own, it could communicate with its co-workers to ask them to come lend a hand – pretty amazing really!

Together, the ants could then coordinate their movements so four ants carry the object rather than just one.

If you’re wondering how this is possible, turns out there are some pretty complex computer algorithms at play – enough said!

These enable each individual bot to determine how to contribute to a given task.

You can check out a video of this ant army in action below:

These BionicANTS work tirelessly too and when they need to recharge, they simply have to lean their steel frame against a charging station. Oh and they can also be produced using a 3D printer too… of course they can !

These artificial ants aren’t for sale just yet, but their potential applications are certainly intriguing. And who knows, maybe one day these innovative bionic insects will be scuttling around the floors of a factory near you!

Here at European Springs, we appreciate amazing feats of design and engineering such as this, and we can’t wait to see what the future may hold for these big bionic copy cats. As leading spring manufactures we like to come up with our fair share of innovations too, such as our terrific tension springs.

Want to know more? Then contact us today, by giving us a call on 028 9083 8605.