Software that mimics the way honeybees work together to search for food could help robots explore and navigate.

Explorer bees report the location of a new food source by dancing. A new type of stereoscopic computer vision system takes inspiration from this trick. It uses virtual honeybees to home in on potential points of interest, which can then be rendered in 3D, based on all the simulated bees’ movements. This could eventually help a robot navigate or interact with its surrounding more efficiently.