“Why is there an ant superglued to floss hanging from the

ceiling, running on a small sphere looking treadmill?!” says any normally concerned person.

 

   For years scientists have found out how different animals walk and run by having them run on specially made treadmills. Scientists have pondered for decades how the Cataglyphis desert ants are “good at navigation and always work out the most direct route back to their nests after going on quests for food,” according to home.bt.com. However, this was not a possible thing to know without knowing how they walk. So researchers have designed a specially made treadmill that allows the ants to run just like they would in the wild. According to  jeb.biologists.org, the treadmill works by “tethering the ant with floss glued to their back above a lightweight styrofoam ball.” The ball was able to roll as the ants walk just like a normal treadmill does.  Sensors were used to allow researchers to read how the ant is moving. According to  jeb.biologists.org, “The treadmill registered minute changes in gait, direction and walking speed to monitor how ants find their way home in unprecedented detail.”

 

The real question is why are they hot gluing ants to floss and making them run on small treadmills? Cataglyphis desert ants are able to navigate their way around to food and back home using the sun to locate their specific location. Scientists believed that with the data they can collect from this research will help in the engineering of agiler tiny autonomous robots in the future. The research showed that “ants measure the distance they have traveled by recording how many steps they have taken,” says jeb.biologists.org.