Robots get new 'brain' inspired by birds, ants to navigate without GPS

Researchers have developed a novel navigation system for robots inspired by animals such as ants, birds, and rodents, enabling robust navigation in environments where GPS is unreliable or unavailable. Traditional non-GPS methods like cameras and sensors often fail under poor visibility or harsh conditions, but animals have evolved redundant and efficient navigation strategies that can be mimicked. The system integrates three overlapping navigation methods—ant-inspired internal step and direction tracking via a spiking neural network, bird-inspired multi-sensor fusion including quantum magnetometers and polarization compasses processed through Bayesian filters, and rodent-inspired cognitive mapping that updates only when significant landmarks are detected. This redundancy, known as degeneracy in biology, allows the robot to compensate if one system fails, enhancing reliability. This bio-inspired approach offers significant advantages over conventional methods like SLAM by conserving energy and reducing computational load, making it suitable for challenging applications such as search and rescue in collapsed buildings, planetary exploration, deep-sea missions, and industrial inspections in chaotic environments. Although currently theoretical,