The discovery by Wits University and an international team of Swedish biologists from Lund University – that dung beetles use different directional sensors to achieve the highest possible navigational precision in different conditions – has broken new ground for Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics and Machine Learning.
Have you ever wondered why dung beetles don’t get lost, even when they navigate vast expanses backwards?
A research team led by Marie Dacke, professor of Sensory Biology at Lund University and renowned biology researcher and Professor Marcus Byrne from Wits asked and answered this question. Their discovery of how the dung beetles’ wind compass complements the sun compass, rolls on some fundamental lessons for better data prioritisation and navigation.