For humans, locusts are insects of destruction and waste. So why was Volvo interested in them?

Swarming in massive, roaring, ravenous clouds locusts completely destroy farms without bumping into each other. And this is what fascinated the Preventative Safety Team at Volvo.

The Swedish car company decided to see if they could use the locust's bump prevention system in cars. Their idea was to prevent Volvo drivers hitting pedestrians.

As it turned out the locust system proved to be too smart for Volvo. They were unable to copy the locust anti-crashing system... but research is continuing.

"We learned of Dr Claire Rind's, Newcastle University, UK, studies into the migratory African Locust, which showed that they tend to to avoid bumping into each other during flights," said Jonan Ekmark, Preventative Safety Leader at Volvo Car Corporation.

"Our original thoughts centred on pedestrian safety. If we could trace how locusts are able to avoid each other maybe we could program our cars not to hit pedestrians."

During the study, Dr Rind learned that visual input is instantly transmitted to the insect's wing nerve cells, seemingly bypassing the brain.

"Locusts are quick reacting and have reliable circuits. They do their computations against lots of background chatter, much like driving around town," said Dr Rind.

Primary to Volvo's research was to synthesise a locust algorithm that could be applied to the car. Unfortunately the locust system was much more sophisticated than anything modern IT could offer the team at Volvo.

"In the end technology was no match for for nature .: said Volvo's Ekmark.s

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