Photo courtesy: Wikipedia
Did you ever think ants would play a role in moving your life forward? We're talking about speed here. Jet speed!
Ranger Rani is curious too. What're the big, intelligent , computer machines learning from the ants? Ants have been around for about 140 million years. There are about 12,000 species of ants. Most ants measure no more than 1 inch (about 25 mm). Packed in this tiny body is enormous strength. Ants can lift 20 times their own body weight!
Ant brain has 250,000 brain cells. So, a single ant isn't smart by itself. But consider this math. A human brain has 10,000 million cells. An ant colony has about 40,000 ants. The collective size of the ant colony is the same size as a human brain! Now, that information holds Ranger Rani's attention.
So, how does the collective brain of an ant work? After all, when we look at the behavior of ants, they are capable of remarkable achievements. They organize a long highway for passing the food, stage raids to take other ant species that work as slaves, build elaborate nests, and raise their young.
It turns out the little intelligence of each ant is enough to add up and swell the colony's swarm intelligence. This means a colony, with many heads together, can solve problems that might be too much for individual ants. For example, finding the shortest path to food source, allocating workers to different tasks, or even defend the nest from neighboring ants, is too complicated for individual ants to solve. Only the swarm intelligence can answer it.
The ant colony operates with a simple rule: follow the pheromone. The chemical trail left by other ants will provide the best route. Each ant learns to follow this and find the food source through trail and error.
How does this relate to trains and planes? It turns out that each pilot is looking for a gate to land in big airports. The scene is similar in train stations. This is like an ant searching for food. Just as ants follow a route that usually provides food, pilots usually go to gates they can arrive and leave quickly. They learn this by experience. Just like ants. And it works well for the planes. The pilots follow the instructions of a software program.
Scientists have used a similar technique to develop software for robots that mimic the organized behavior of swarm of insects. They've learned that instructions for operating a robot don't have to be complicated. It can be a series of simple behavior that actually add to become a complex behavior among many robots.
Such robots can serve in dangerous missions like sweeping for land mines that can kill or maim humans as it blows off. They can also be used to serve in search and rescue missions with little need for human direction or command.
When swarm intelligence is applied, the swarm crowds near the discovery and begin the task assigned as a collective group.
Ranger Rani is impressed by the simple methods to solve complex problems. She hopes one day humans too will follow this model.
