A recent study has shown that spider legs have “minds of their own”, constructing webs without the oversight of the spider’s brain. This has important implications for the field of robotics, which may take inspiration from this example of decentralized intelligence to build similarly autonomous robot limbs.
Key Takeaways:
- By filming and tracking the movements of its eight legs, we have been able to track a spider’s web-building in intimate detail, revealing the construction process.
- A virtual spider, Theseus, helped understand how each spider leg acts as an independent agent.
- These findings have significant implications for robotics, which can take inspiration from the idea of autonomous limbs.
“Our study has shown that spider legs have “minds of their own”, constructing webs without the oversight of the spider’s brain.”
