Insects’ Brain Power and its Significance for Energy-Efficient Computing
Insects’ brains are tiny yet let them navigate through the world with incredible precision. Even though it might seem like a small part of the world around them, their ability to move through it efficiently consistently proves that there might be something we can learn from them. It’s important to take a closer look at just how efficient they can be and how we might be able to use those principles for our own technology.
How Insects Navigate With Limited Brain Power
When moving trhough the world, insects do something humans can hardly comprehend. They can make their way through the world with just a limited amount of brain power, and there’s a secret to it. According to physicist Elisabetta Chicca, insects know how to use the apparent motion of things to their advantage, telling how far away things are, the same idea that helps them take complex paths but make them simpler by going straight then turning.
The Creation of a Robot that Acts Like an Insect’s Brain
Dr Chicca’s phD student, Thorben Schoepe, developed a model based on how insects work, and created a robot to test it. A key aspect of the model was its ability to steer towards the area with the least apparent motion. Ensuring its efficiency in all environments is important for Chicca, who hopes to incorporate this specific insect behavior in a chip to build energy-efficient computers in the future.
The Efficiency of Insect Behavior for Computer Technology
Chicca’s results show that insects have an efficient way of doing things naturally, without any learning involved. The goal is to take this principle and apply it to technology, making it much smaller and energy-efficient while keeping its ability to perform at all levels. Ultimately, by understanding how insect brains work, it might be possible to build faster, smaller computers in the future.