Monday, August 31, 2009

Welcome to the RoboBees project

This is the official blog of the Harvard RoboBees project. We're developing an autonomous colony of robotic bees that can be used for crop pollination, search and rescue, environmental monitoring, and more. This project is funded by a $10M NSF Expeditions in Computing grant and involves 10 researchers from Harvard and Northeastern Universities, with expertise ranging from microrobotics, programming languages, wireless networking, and low-power computer architecture.

This blog will be used as an informal forum for disseminating research results, discussing relevant projects and papers, and raising different points of view.

For more details on the RoboBees project, check out the official project web site.

3 comments:

  1. Why do you use wings, and not a propeller (rotor blade used by a helicopter)?
    Ty.

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  2. Could you please email me a 3D model of Mobee that I could present using google sketchup? I am 12 years old, and I am doing a presentation on the mechanics of Mobee for my school. This would help make my presentation a lot easier.
    Thanks,
    Lev
    P.S. My email is bacon40424@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Pollinating Robobees are a good idea, but that's just the beginning.

    Imagine a small solar panel mounted on a hollow stake at every crop plant or small group of plants. The units would be designed to be automatically planted as each seed is planted, deep enough to weather weather, and automatically gathered back up during each harvest.

    The unit would gather dew and the solar panel would condense water vapor, and deliver it to the roots.

    Tethered to the solar panel would be one or more Robobees, which would seek and destroy pests every charging cycle. The panel enclosure would provide protection for the Robobees during bad weather.

    The base of the stake would contain Robocrawlers, which dig for and destroy underground pests, aerate the soil, and facilitate no-till farming.

    Drone carriers would gather up charged Robobees by the millions to deal with any large pest swarms at neighboring farms. When the battle is over, discharged Robobees can be gathered up using passive location signaling devices.

    No more emptying aquifers. No more pesticides. No more genetically modified food. How about that?

    ReplyDelete