The army-ant in technology

Then, when they reached the Valley of the Ants, an ant said: "Ants!
Enter your dwellings, so that Sulayman and his troops do not crush you
unwittingly." (Qur'an, 27:18)
The "Valley of the Ants" refers to a special place and special ants.
In addition, the fact that Prophet Sulayman (as) could hear the ants
talking among themselves may contain striking references to future
developments in computer technology. The present-day term "Silicon
Valley" refers to the centre of the world of technology. It is most
significant that a "valley of the ants" appears in the account of
Prophet Sulayman's (as) life. Allah may be drawing our attention to
the advanced technology of the future.
Furthermore, ants and other insect species are widely used in advanced
technology as models in robot projects and are intended to serve in a
wide range of areas, from the defence industry to technology. The
verse may also be referring to these developments.
Latest Developments in Miniature Technology: Army-Ant Robots
The best known project using ants as a model are the "Army-Ant Robot"
projects being carried out independently in several countries. One
study being carried out by the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
Virginia State University seeks to develop small, inexpensive, and
simple physically identical robots that can be used as a robot army.
Project officials explain these robots' functionality in the following
terms: "The way they behave as a group, in a coordinated manner,
perform a series of physical actions, and take joint decisions." These
robot armies' mechanical and electrical designs have been based on the
behaviour of an ant community. They are called the "army-ant" robots
because of their similarities to their insect counterparts.
The "army-ant" robot system was originally designed as a
"material-carrying system." According to this scenario, several small
robots would be charged with jointly lifting and carrying objects. It
was later decided that they could be used for other tasks. One report
describes other tasks to which they might be assigned in the future:
Nuclear and hazardous waste cleanup with robotic "swarms," mining
(including material removal and search-and-rescue), mine sweeping
(both land and water), surveillance and sentry, planetary surface
exploration and excavation. 1
In a report by Israel A. Wagner, an expert on ant robot technology,
the ant robot projects were described in these terms:
Ant-robots are simple physical or virtual creatures designed to
cooperate in order to achieve a common goal. They are assumed to have
very limited resources of energy, sensing and computing, and to
communicate via traces left in the workspace or on the ground, like
many insects naturally do…
The distribution of work among multiple a(ge)nts can be made by either
a central controller who sends orders to the agents, or by an a-priori
agreement on a certain partitioning that, if obeyed by the agents,
eventually leads to a completion of the given mission. A third way,
used throughout the current work, is to design the behavior of
individuals such that cooperation will naturally emerge in the course
of their work, without making a-priori decisions on the structure of
the cooperation. The specific application that we address is covering,
which is also known as exploring or searching. This variety of names
hints to the many applications this problem might have: from cleaning
the floor of a house to mapping an unknown planet or demining a mine
field. 2
As can be seen in these examples, an ant's social lifestyle forms the
basis of many projects, and the various ant-based robot technologies
are providing benefits for human beings. That is why it is so
important that ants and their valley are referred to in the Qur'anic
account of Prophet Sulayman's (as) life. The term "ants" in the verse
may refer to an army consisting of robots, future developments in
robot technology, and how robots will play an important role in human
life. For example, they may perform many arduous tasks and thus make
people's lives more comfortable. (Allah knows best.)