Marco Warriors and his team at Trent University studied how ants manage to walk in orderly lines without collisions or gaps. Inspired by their behavior, the researchers suggest that these insights could be used to improve traffic control systems, especially in areas with heavy congestion.
The team recorded videos of ants moving in lines and analyzed their behavior using a deep-learning-based approach. They discovered that, unlike human traffic, ant lines flow smoothly with almost no bottlenecks. Warriors and his team identified three key factors behind this: ants maintain a nearly constant speed, use multiple routes, and strictly avoid overtaking.
One particularly interesting finding was the "no overtaking" rule. While an individual ant might leave the line and be passed by others, ants walking side by side never push past those ahead of them.
The study also found that ants organize themselves into small “squads” and synchronize their walking speed within these groups. Meanwhile, solitary ants use the strong pheromone trails left by the squads to catch up and join the line.
Warriors believes this behavior could inform the design of cooperative autonomous vehicles. “Just like ants communicate through pheromones, vehicles could exchange information with each other and the road,” he explained. “By maintaining a steady speed and keeping safe but shorter gaps between vehicles, cars could form coordinated groups, reducing traffic jams and improving road efficiency.”
This study highlights the potential for nature-inspired solutions to modern challenges, offering a fresh perspective on how consistent and cooperative behavior could transform transportation systems.
Viewer Comments:
Their teamwork is truly amazing.
Pheromones seem so convenient!
I wish my kids would follow these rules too.
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