The Bees Are Back…As Robots? Harvard Project Funds The Engineering Of Robotic Bees Soon To Be In Flight

With the alarming decline in the honey bee population sweeping our globe, fear of the multi-billion dollar crop industry collapsing has been on many people’s minds.

To tackle this issue, Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has been working with staff from the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Northeastern University’s Department of Biology to develop robot bees. Yes that’s right, Robobees. And according to a new video just released, these insectoid automatons have already taken flight.

According to the creators of Robobee:

The demonstration of the first controlled flight of an insect-sized robot is the culmination of more than a decade’s work . . . Half the size of a paperclip, weighing less than a tenth of a gram, the robot was inspired by the biology of a fly, with submillimeter-scale anatomy and two wafer-thin wings that flap almost invisibly, 120 times per second.

Environmental organization Greenpeace released an unnerving public service announcement video showcasing what a potential world would look like if it were inhabited by these Robobees. The video utilizes calming music and mesmerizing imagery to paint the picture of this ‘perfect’ world.

Not sure about anyone else, but after watching the video I felt disturbed about the entire project. Micro-robots that fly around and kill other insects and monitor our environment? Does anyone else think this is a little bit strange?

Harvard University listed on their website the possible benefits of such technology, alluding to the Robobees being a technological means to efficiently pollenate crops without the dependence on the declining honey bee population. Of course, this decline is in part due to the insecticide GMO crops plaguing our planet. So in reality these Robobees are not targeting the root of the problem, but hey, it’s a start….

Harvard’s “Micro Air Vehicles Project” is inspired by the biology of a bee and the insect’s hive behaviors. While the developers have created these micro-bots to be autonomous, meaning that they have a ‘mind’ of their own, they also plan on coordinating large numbers of the Robobees to accomplish more complicated tasks faster and efficiently.

The robots are created through an incredible micro-engineering process specifically designed for mass production. Each “Bee” is designed with its own electronic nervous system and power source, and able to target tasks with a microscopic UV targeting sensor. On top of that, these bees can be programmed to only work with specific crops.

However, Harvard’s official website has stated that this isn’t a long term solution to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and the crop failure crisis,

“If robots were used for pollination it would only be as a stop-gap measure while a solution to CCD is implemented to restore natural pollinators.”

So if these Robobees are not meant to solve the CCD crisis, then what could be their alternative purpose? It’s interesting to note some other ‘practical’ applications of the Robobees which Harvard lists on their website:

·        search and rescue (e.g., in the aftermath of a natural disaster);

·        hazardous environment exploration;

·        military surveillance;

·        high resolution weather and climate mapping; and

·        traffic monitoring.

Need I say more?

We want to hear your thoughts on the Robobees, share with us below!

References:

1.) http://robobees.seas.harvard.edu/home

2.) http://www.fooddemocracynow.org/blog/2013/mar/20/scientists_develop_flying_robobees_to_pollinate/