Pesticide use. Climate change. Habitat destruction. Scientists report all these factors result in declining insect populations in general and in colony collapse for honeybees.

 

As backyard gardeners most of us are observing fewer butterflies both in numbers and varieties. Only occasionally do we hear that “once all too common” buzzing sound of bees and bumblebees darting through our vegetable plots and hovering over our flower beds.

 

Yet the task of cross-pollination that these particular insects perform is critical for our food supply. More than ninety commercially grown crops in North America depend upon the honeybee. Imagine the future with no sweet apples to crunch on, no blueberries for your cereal — or no broccoli for your teenager to complain about.

 

Enter artificial intelligence that is becoming enmeshed in the future of everything. Micro-robotic technology in partnership with biological research and computer simulation is already working on a robotic flower pollinator. The buzz pollinator substitute. The horsehair-gel coated mini drone. The Plan Bee.

 

In a few short years, the buzzing you hear circling your tomato plant might not be a bee but a bot.

Visit the following YouTube links for these videos on:

 

“Tiny, Robotic Bees Could Change the World” by National Geographic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJCMIsLuGpg  

 

“Flight of the Robo Bees”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JWGiyr9FcE 

 

Check out these website for photographs and information on the buzz pollinator, the horsehair-gel coated mini drone and the Plan Bee:

  

 

https://www.livescience.com/57827-robot-bees-could-aid-pollination.html