Harvard's RoboBee Masters Landing, Paving Way For Agricultural Pollination (chosun.com)
- Reference: 0177046549
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/04/16/2018225/harvards-robobee-masters-landing-paving-way-for-agricultural-pollination
- Source link: https://biz.chosun.com/en/en-science/2025/04/17/O7IIIEUZ3ZGTLM5JQ26CK2UTS4/
> RoboBee is a micro flying robot that Harvard has been developing since 2013. As the name suggests, it is the size of a bee, capable of flying like a bee and hovering in mid-air. Its wings are 3 cm long and it weighs only 0.08 g. The weight was reduced by using light piezoelectric elements instead of motors. Piezoelectric elements change shape when an electric current flows through them. The researchers were able to make RoboBee flap its wings 120 times per second by turning the current on and off, which is similar to actual insects.
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> While RoboBee exhibited flight capabilities comparable to those of a bee, the real problem was landing. Being too light and having short wings, it could not withstand the air turbulence generated during landing. It is easy to understand if you think about the strong winds generated when a helicopter approaches the ground. Christian Chan, a graduate student at Harvard who participated in the research, said, "Until now, it was a matter of shutting off the robot while it attempted to land and praying for a proper touchdown."
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> To ensure RoboBee's safe landing, it was important to dissipate energy just before touchdown. Hyun Nak-Seung, a professor at Purdue University who participated in the development of RoboBee, explained, "For any flying object, the success of landing depends on minimizing speed just before impact and rapidly dissipating energy afterward. Even for tiny flapping like RoboBee's, the ground effect cannot be ignored, and after landing, the risk of bouncing or rolling makes the situation more complex."
The findings have been [2]published in the journal Science Robotics .
[1] https://biz.chosun.com/en/en-science/2025/04/17/O7IIIEUZ3ZGTLM5JQ26CK2UTS4/
[2] https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.adq3059
Birds? (Score:1)
Next, how are they going to keep birds from trying to eat robo-bees? Or they can send out ED-209 to guard them and act as scarecrows.
Next problem: power (Score:2)
The video in the story shows that the RoboBee is attached to the end of a wire, presumably to supply power. Once they un-tether it, they'll have to find a way to provide power to the flapping wings. Batteries would add significant weight, and would likely struggle to power the bots for more than a short burst. Real bees are able to feed off the nectar in the flowers they visit. Obtaining electric power from flowers might be a bit more of a challenge.
In summary, it's going to be quite some time before we see
Can "RoboBee" break down the Cloudflare blockade? (Score:1)
I wish people would make enough noise to make it stop
Why is this even necessary? (Score:2)
That money would be much better spent figuring out ways to protect the real bees and the environment they (and we) live in.
Re: (Score:1)
Protecting the bees does not really cost money in that sense .
It costs billions to the industries that sell unneeded poisons, though.
And if you ask me if I want either to participate in a natural bees protection research program, or in a miniature coleoptera/bee research project: I guess the answer is obvious.
Bottom line that is not how research works. There plenty of gigantic pots of money. And many many responsible to hand out appropriated amounts to as many projects as suitable.
Unless you assign another E
Why land (Score:2)
I don't know why it needs to land. If they want to collect them for recharging they could just fly them in front of a vacuum cleaner and collect them in the filter or provide a suitably soft landing area or use magnetic levetation over the landing pad etc.
Bee 911 (Score:2)
Oh boy, I'm sure glad they taught the things how to land, I was worried they were planning a bee 9/11.