This review article aims to address common research questions in hexapod robotics. How
can we build intelligent autonomous hexapod robots that can exploit their biomechanics …

Highlights•Animals compare current and desired headings to initiate steering during
navigation.•The insect central complex (CX) encodes head-direction (current heading).•A …

For navigation, animals use a robust internal compass. Compass navigation is crucial for
long-distance migrating animals like monarch butterflies, which use the sun to navigate over …

Sleep is essential for proper brain function in mammals and insects. During sleep, animals
are disconnected from the external world; they show high arousal thresholds and changed …

Major evolutionary transitions can be triggered by behavioural novelty, and are often
associated with 'adaptive suites', which involve shifts in multiple co-adapted traits subject to …

The evolutionary relationships between ecology, cognition, and neurobiology remain
elusive, despite important contributions from functional studies and comparative analyses …

Despite their tiny brains, insects show impressive abilities when navigating over short
distances during path integration or during migration over thousands of kilometers across …

Honey bee dance has been intensively studied as a communication system, and yet we still
know very little about the neurobiological mechanisms supporting how dances are produced …

Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) have become a superb model system to unravel
how the tiny insect brain controls an impressive navigation behavior, such as long-distance …

Many animals use celestial cues for spatial orientation. These include the sun and, in
insects, the polarization pattern of the sky, which depends on the position of the sun. The …