Robotic Bees May Replace The Diminishing Population Of Honey Bees
Robotic Bees May Replace The Diminishing Population Of Honey Bees
With the numbers of honey bees being in constant decline in a process named colony collapse disorder, the world’s pollination seems to be in peril While it might not sound like something important, honeybees make up a huge part of the pollination process and their absence can have serious repercussions on the ecosystem and our access to flowering plants.
A group of researchers have been working on a solution to the matter and have recently come up with one of the most interesting and unexpected solutions possible. They have designed and worked out the basic model for a robotic honey bee that they say will be able to pollinate plants and search for fields and trees they can pollinate or do any number of tasks that require a swarm of little robots.
While it may seem implausible especially seeing as bees in the way we know them today are the result of millions of years of evolution that gave them the ability to fly for hours while maintaining stability in the toughest weather conditions and being able to seek out flowers for miles while avoiding predators.
In their newly published project researchers explain in detail how they managed to get their robotic bees to fly and maintain balance like the real ones.
The bees are made from piezoelectric materials, materials that seem to contract when a surge of electrical current passes through them. So instead of the classical robot which has motors and gears the robot bees are designed to resemble the anatomy of real life insects.
The system of the robotic bees has separate muscles for control and for powering the wings. While larger power actuators control the wing-thorax motion smaller and more precise actuators refine the movement of the wings to enable better maneuvering.
The researchers haven’t stopped at just making their robot bees look the part, they also want them to behave like a colony of honey bees would, by interacting and working together for the good of their colony.
While the researchers are very enthusiastic about their progress they said that there is still some way to go and that the most challenging part will be to equip the small robotic bees with the power sources and electronic devices they will need. They say that while that might take some time, in no less than a decade, robotic bees should be a reality and should function in nature.
Researchers also say that robotic bees can have a range of other uses, from surveillance to exploring contaminated or dangerous environments to climate mapping.
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