An insect species that originated 130 million years ago has sparked a new research project aimed at enhancing navigation systems in drones, robots, and satellites in space.
An insect species that originated 130 million years ago has sparked a new research project aimed at enhancing navigation systems in drones, robots, and satellites in space.
The dung beetle is the earliest known insect to navigate using the Milky Way at night, using specific constellations of stars as a guide to roll dung balls in a direct line, avoiding competition.
Swedish researchers discovered this in 2013, and ten years later, engineers in Australia are replicating the dung beetle’s approach to create an AI sensor capable of accurately detecting the orientation of the Milky Way in dim light conditions.
Professor Javaan Chahl, a remote sensing engineer at the University of South Australia, along with his PhD students, employed computer vision to reveal that the Milky Way’s bright strip of light remains unaffected by motion blur, unlike the individual stars.
“Nocturnal dung beetles exhibit significant head and body movement while transporting dung balls across a landscape, requiring a stable reference point in the night sky to maintain a straight path,” explains Prof Chahl. “Their small compound eyes make it challenging to discern single stars, especially while moving, but the Milky Way is easily visible.”
The UniSA team conducted a series of experiments with a camera fitted to the top of a vehicle, capturing images of the Milky Way while the vehicle was stationary and in motion. Using these images, they have created a computer vision system that effectively measures the Milky Way’s orientation, marking an important step toward developing a navigation system.
Their research has been featured in the journal Biomimetics.
Yiting Tao, the lead author and a PhD candidate at UniSA, notes that this orientation sensor could serve as a backup for stabilizing satellites and assisting drones and robots in navigating in low-light environments, even amid blurriness caused by movement and shaking.
“For the next phase, I aim to implement the algorithm on a drone and enable it to navigate during nighttime flights,” says Tao.
During the day, various insects, such as wasps, dragonflies, honeybees, and desert ants, rely on the sun for navigation. At night, though the moon can also serve as a reference, it isn’t always visible, which is why dung beetles and certain moths turn to the Milky Way for guidance.
Prof Chahl emphasizes that insect vision has been a significant source of inspiration for engineers tackling navigation challenges.
“Insects have been solving navigational challenges for millions of years, even ones that advanced machines struggle with. They accomplish this with remarkably small brains, which consist of just tens of thousands of neurons compared to the billions in humans, yet they effortlessly derive solutions from nature.”
