The actual treadmill run revealed new insights into how ants behave. It confirmed existing techniques that ant use to get back to their nest, such as counting their strides and using the Sun's position as a guide. However, it also revealed that lost ants jump into a search pattern where they slow down and loop around until they have some sign of where to go.

While the machine was designed for a specific test, it's easy to see the broader possibilities. This should be useful for experiments where researchers want to study insects in controlled conditions without imposing too many restrictions on the critters in question. While ants and other species frequently act as collectives, this could shed a lot of light on what they do when they're on their own.