Robotic ants the size of a human hand that work together could be the future of factory production systems.

The developers, German technology firm Festo, say it's not just the unusual anatomy of real-world ants that inspired the bionic version - the collective intelligence of an ant colony was also something they wanted to replicate.

Our new overlords? Bionic ants.

The bionic ants co-operate and coordinate their actions and movements to achieve a common aim - in the same way individual ants complete tasks for the whole colony. Festo says that in the future production systems will be based on intelligent individual components that adjust themselves to different production demands by communicating with each other.

The ants are able to complete complex tasks, like transporting large, heavy loads, that they wouldn't be able to achieve individually by working together.