Fire Ant Interactions Offer Inspiration for Smarter Materials

What can the physics of fire ants tell us exactly? Enough to create "intelligent" materials to change their shape at will.

“The origins of such behaviors lie in fairly simple rules,” said Franck Vernerey  , primary investigator on the new study and professor in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering. “Single ants are not as smart as one may think, but, collectively, they become very intelligent and resilient communities.”


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Materials