How do ants transmit knowledge to each other?

To find out how ants teach each other things, researchers have created a teacher ant in robotic form. The task of the robot ant: teach the colony new routes.

When one of the ants in a colony has found a better nest, that ant picks up one of its nest mates and then explains the way to the new nest. It simply means that it leads the way and follows the other ant – keeping a watchful eye on the surroundings.

Researchers at the University of Bristol wanted to see: are we getting this good enough to mimic it? They built a not so good nest and a much better nest well separated and put a colony of ants in the not so good nest. When an ant left the nest, a robot ant with the scent glands of a worker ant would walk towards it.

The robotic ant then walked in either a straight line or a wavy line towards the new nest, stopping occasionally to follow and watch the next ant. The robot ant was followed closely and the real ant, after taking a good look at the new nest, walked the exact same path to the old nest to fetch the next one whether it was in a straight line or not.

In this way, the researchers hope to learn much more about the learning system of ant colonies.

Read more: Robot helps reveal how ants pass on knowledge.