Scared of bees? The RoboBee Project at Harvard University is unlikely to put your fears to rest.
It seems that biology professor Joseph Ayers is hard at work with a team of researchers to develop a horde of tiny flying robot bees that act as much like the real thing as possible. The team plans to actually construct a bee-like nervous system and robo-body, linked to a high-energy source. The hope is to develop robotic simulations of animals capable of operating in a range of environments.
Nervous yet?
If you’re still feeling relaxed, check out this tidbit from an article in Newswise: “Ayers is widely known for his work in biomimetics — the science of adapting the control systems found in nature to inform design of engineered systems to solve real-world problems — including the development of RoboLobster and RoboLamprey.”
RoboLobsters… lampreys… and now bees. You have to wonder what’s coming next — perhaps RoboShark? RoboVampireBat? Or perhaps RoboSaurus?
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