Drone bee swarms to fertilise flowers
Swarms of autonomous robot bees could be enlisted to help fertilise crops and wildflowers, assisting the dwindling natural bee population.
Researchers have created an insect-sized drone that can pollinate flowers. They used gel applied to horsehair pads to mimic the fuzzy body and stickiness of real bees. They have already been successfully tested on Japanese lilies.
According to Eijiro Miyako, senior researcher and co-author of a paper published in the journal Chem, the gel retains exactly the right stickiness to carry and deposit pollen grains as required.
This could not be achieved with ordinary adhesives. The horsehair bristles create more surface area for pollen to adhere to and generate electric charge to keep the grains in place.
The prototype, developed at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tokyo, is built around an offthe-shelf miniature drone that is about the length of dragonfly.
The researchers intend to develop their own smaller, nimbler, bee-sized drone that would use the same technology to carry pollen grains but could fly autonomously. Researchers at Harvard have been working for several years on RoboBees, autonomous flying microrobots that they say could be used for crop pollination, among other uses.
Their robots measure about half the size of a paper clip, weigh less than a tenth of a gram, and fly using ‘‘artificial muscles’’ made using materials that contract when a voltage is applied – flapping 120 times per second.
Although the Harvard bees are more sophisticated, they do not have any mechanism for carrying pollen grains so the Japanese invention is a significant development.
Some experts are doubtful about the whole concept, however. Simon Potts, professor of biodiversity at Reading University, said the idea of robot bees pollinating crops was ‘‘pure science-fiction’’. He added: ‘‘Technology has taken tiny steps in that direction but is still barely out of the starting gates. Evolution crossed the finishing line millions of years ago.’’
The decline of bees and other natural pollinators has been attributed to a combination of factors including habitat loss, pollution, climate change, modern farming methods and pesticides.