By Evan Ackerman
I guess the bee crisis is worse than it seems, because the National Science Foundation is giving Harvard a cool $10 million to develop a robot bee colony. That’s right, not just one, but an entire colony of robot bees. The bees will buzz around on flapping wings, use optical flow sensors for navigation and obstacle avoidance, sport cute little antennae as well as “pollination and docking appendages,” and use an as yet unspecified power source…
Next version: Bees that build new bees from material gathered in the field. This version will also be equipped with the latest in bio-reactors running on – you guessed it, nectar! This way they will outcompete the killer-bees, provide hours of safe, sadistic wing- and leg-tearing, play games for children everywhere. All of this, without the hazard of swarm-attacks – a win-win if I ever saw one!
Aww, how I miss Invader Zim.
Is this really going to fool Osama?
It's impressive, but what I don't understand is the lack of talks on the subject. There are millions of discussions on global warming but near none on honey bees. I haven't seen a honey bee in years.
let's just hope the robot bees don't become self-aware
I guess this gives a use to all those waving robot flowers from Japan.
Idea: make the individual bees the size of 747s, create space attack swarm to rule universe.
I don't know if i should be in awe or terrified by this/
Why not just use that new laser technique on african honey bees?
Screw making metal ones. Who would survive 1 million mind mutated african bees, “with frickin laser beam induced intelligence”.
Why not just use that new laser technique on african honey bees?
Screw making metal ones. Who would survive 1 million mind mutated african bees, “with frickin laser beam induced intelligence”.