Robotics engineers are buzzing about a machine with potentially
transformative implications for agriculture, surveillance, and mapping:
the "robobee." Researchers at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences plan to have the mechanized critters flapping though the air autonomously within the next three years, according to NPR.
And if coaxing the machines into flight isn't enough of a challenge,
the real innovation lies in getting the machines to mimic the
collaborative behavior of a colony.
Each robobee will be
equipped with sensors and cameras, instead of antennae and eyes, that
will allow them to do everything from pollinating a field of crops to
searching for survivors after a natural disaster. Communication among a
swarm of bees—decentralized and leaderless—is a particularly compelling
model for an automated system, since the insects are able to efficiently
adapt to changes in their environment without receiving orders from one
authority. If successful, the project promises an important step
forward for designing and coordinating systems of machines.
Manufacturing the bees has required completely rethinking materials and
process. Last week, the team announced a new method of mass production
that takes a page from pop-up books. Laser cut sheets of fibers expand
with one smooth movement into the shape of a bee. See the robobee take
off below.
Image courtesy of Pratheev Sreetharan