Robobee is the latest buzzword at Harvard University and Northeastern University, which received a $10 million grant to create a swarm of robotic bees. Based on news reports, it appears that researchers are attempting to build an entirely mechanical flying insect. (As opposed to cyborg insects like the HI-MEMS cyborg beetle.)
According to news reports, the work will likely be based on the earlier research of Professor Robert Wood, whose team created a robotic fly micro air vehicle that made quite a stir in 2007. The robotic fly weighs just sixty milligrams and has a wingspan of just three centimeters.
Bees and bee colonies have long been held up as models of efficiency and coordination. Using a host of different sensors, unique communication protocols, and a precise hierarchy of task delegation, thousands of bees can work independently on different tasks while all working toward a common goal--keeping their colony alive. Researchers in this Expedition will create robotic bees that fly autonomously and coordinate activities amongst themselves and the hive, much like real bees.
The research team aims to drive research in compact high-energy power sources, ultra-low-power computing, and the design of distributed algorithms for multi-agent systems. Furthermore, the RoboBees created will provide unique insights into how Mother Nature conjures such elegant solutions to solve complex problems.
Take a look at this unique video of the robotic fly taking its rightful place in the Museum of Modern Art.
Science fiction fans should be happy about this; purely robotic insects have been taken seriously by science fiction writers for almost three-quarters of a century. Technovelgy readers are of course familiar with the amazing scarab robot flying insect from Raymond Z. Gallun's 1936 story The Scarab:
The Scarab paused on its perch for a moment, as if to determine for itself whether it was perfectly fit for action. It was a tiny thing, scarcely more than an inch and a half in length...
...the Scarab buzzed into the great workroom as any intruding insect might, and sought the security of a shadowed corner. There it studied its surroundings, transmitting to its manipulator, far away now, all that it heard through its ear microphones and saw with its minute vision tubes.
Mika The Robot-Boss
'the robot-boss was busy at the lip of the new lode instructing and egging the men on to greater speed...' - David C. Cooke, 1939.
Sensitive, Soft Robot Skin
'...tinted material that had all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.' - Harl Vincent, 1934.
Finger Sensors For Robot Hands
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!' - Ray Cummings, 1931.
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