Keynote
In person

Insect intelligence: Efficient autonomy from tiny brains

  • Date
    7 July 2026
    Timeframe
    12:15 - 12:30
    Duration
    15 minutes
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    Natural systems significantly out-perform state-of-the-art AI in many real-world tasks. For example, an individual ant is able to emerge for the first time from her nest into an unknown environment, rapidly learn the surrounding cues, traverse hundreds of metres of rough terrain, identify, manipulate and grasp a suitable food item, and carry it directly back to the nest, which she has cooperatively constructed with her nestmates. Moreover, she does this at a fraction of the computational and energy costs of existing robot solutions to comparable navigation and manipulation challenges. Understanding the physical design and neural mechanisms underlying insect behaviour offers an alternative route to producing useful autonomous robots that can perform successfully and robustly with a minimal resource footprint. This presentation will illustrate how reverse engineering the capability of insects has led to efficient solutions for robot navigation and sensorimotor control, as well as providing new insights into neuroscience.

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