Groups move efficiently: army ants

1 of 1 Army ant lanes / Axel Rouvin / License

Army ants move efficiently in large numbers by maintaining three lanes of traffic; two outer lanes travel opposite the inner lane and are governed by behavioral differences related to possession of food.

Biomimicry Taxonomy

	Maintain community >
	Coordinate >
	Groups (self-organize)

Biomimetic Application Ideas

There may be lessons we can take from army ants in increasing our transportation efficiency. Setting rules for behavior allow for self organizing and more efficient flow.

[Collapse all sections] Summary

"By forming three lanes of traffic during hunting expeditions, army ants in Panama come close to achieving the maximum possible rate of traffic flow. Given that army ants are blind, and that a hunting party might consist of 200,000 ants marching in opposite directions, it is surprising that they are able to maintain such efficiency. The answer lies in the behavioral differences between ants with food and ants without. Ants returning from a successful hunt are less likely to deviate when bumped. Weighed down by their prize, they simply continue to march in a line, guided by the pheromone trail of the ants in front of them. Ants traveling away from the nest carry no food, and are more likely to get out of the way. The result is a middle lane of food-toting ants moving in one direction, and two outer lanes of unburdened ants moving in the opposite direction. Using a computer model, researchers from Princeton University and the University of Bristol learned that, as behavioral differences decrease, traffic efficiency goes down. If burdened and unburdened ants behaved in roughly the same way, the three-lane system would deteriorate." (Courtesy of the Biomimicry Guild)

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About the inspiring organism

Eciton burchellii
Eciton burchellii (Westwood, 1842)

IUCN Red List Status: Unknown

Some organism data provided by: ITIS: The Integrated Taxonomic Information System
Organism/taxonomy data provided by:
Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2008 Annual Checklist

Bioinspired products and application ideas

Application Ideas: There may be lessons we can take from army ants in increasing our transportation efficiency. Setting rules for behavior allow for self organizing and more efficient flow.

Industrial Sector(s) interested in this strategy: Transportation, sports complex traffic flow, robotics

Experts

Collective Animal Behavior Laboratory
Iain Couzin
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University

References

Couzin, I.D.; Franks, N.R. 2003. Self-organized lane formation and optimized traffic flow in army ants. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B. 270: 139-146.

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Comments

Here are two related articles. Other species of ants, but related to "ant traffic flow": ...

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