The Physics of Fire Ant Rafts Could Help Engineers Design Swarming Robots
Published:07 Mar.2022 Source:University of Colorado at Boulder
Noah rode out his flood in an ark. Winnie-the-Pooh had an upside-down umbrella. Fire ants (Solenopsis invicta), meanwhile, form floating rafts made up of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of individual insects.
A new study by engineers at the University of Colorado Boulder lays out the simple physics-based rules that govern how these ant rafts morph over time: shrinking, expanding or growing long protrusions like an elephant's trunk. The team's findings could one day help researchers design robots that work together in swarms or next-generation materials in which molecules migrate to fix damaged spots.