All Outputs (3)

Brood sorting by ants: Two phases and differential diffusion (2004)
Journal Article
Sendova-Franks, A. B., Scholes, S. R., Franks, N. R., & Melhuish, C. (2004). Brood sorting by ants: Two phases and differential diffusion. Animal Behaviour, 68(5), 1095-1106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2004.02.013

Leptothorax ant colonies sort their brood in concentric annuli with the smallest items in the middle and the largest on the periphery. Such brood sorting is a prime example of collective structure formation by social insects. Its underlying mechanism... Read More about Brood sorting by ants: Two phases and differential diffusion.

Improvement in collective performance with experience in ants (2004)
Journal Article
Langridge, E. A., Franks, N. R., & Sendova-Franks, A. B. (2004). Improvement in collective performance with experience in ants. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 56(6), 523-529. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-004-0824-3

We show that entire ant colonies can improve their collective performance progressively when they repeat the same process. Colonies of Leptothorax albipennis can reduce their total emigration times over successive emigrations. We show that this impro... Read More about Improvement in collective performance with experience in ants.

Algorithms for building annular structures with minimalist robots inspired by brood sorting in ant colonies (2004)
Journal Article
Wilson, M., Melhuish, C., Sendova-Franks, A. B., & Scholes, S. (2004). Algorithms for building annular structures with minimalist robots inspired by brood sorting in ant colonies. Autonomous Robots, 17(2-3), 115-136. https://doi.org/10.1023/B%3AAURO.0000033969.52486.3d

This study shows that a task as complicated as multi-object 'ant-like annular sorting' can be accomplished with 'minimalist' solutions employing simple mechanisms and minimal hardware. It provides an alternative to 'patch sorting' for multi-object so... Read More about Algorithms for building annular structures with minimalist robots inspired by brood sorting in ant colonies.