Engineers have given robots a 'sixth sense' by copying a weird, rotating pulse of electricity found in the brains of insects.

Humans and animals know exactly where their limbs are even in the dark, but robots usually struggle to 'feel' their own bodies without constant, power-hungry sensors. Researchers built a digital version of a 'ring attractor,' a biological phenomenon where a bump of neural activity literally spins in a circle to track movement. This system allows a robot to remember its joint positions for several seconds with incredible stability, mimicking how a fruit fly keeps track of its heading. By using these 'spiking' signals that act like real brain cells, robots can now maintain a sense of self-awareness using a fraction of the power of a traditional computer. It’s a huge step toward machines that perceive the world—and themselves—exactly like living creatures do.