Posted on: March 16, 2018 | Written By: Everybody Gardens |
Could a robotic pollinator take the place of bees?
Walmart has filed a patent application for a pollinator drone that could serve the function of a bee.
The unmanned vehicle would collect pollen from a flower of the first crop and apply that to a flower from a second crop. A sensor could detect if the pollination was successful.
“In recent years, the amount of pollinators (e.g., ants, bees, beetles, butterflies, wasps, etc.) has been in steady decline, which leads to reduced fertility and biodiversity of the crops and reduced crop production,” Walmart writes in its patent application.
From April 2015 to April 2016, U.S. beekeepers lost 44 percent of their honey bee colonies, according to a survey from the Bee Informed Partnership and the Apiary Inspectors of America.
Better safe than sorry, right?
Anna Haldewang, then a design major at the Savannah College of Art and Design, conceived of Plan Bee, a hand-sized black-and-yellow drone. Controlled by a smart device, the drone can pollinate crops and flowers.
“When people think about the future, and about drones in particular, sometimes they think in extremes: drones used in military applications, or for surveillance,” Haldewang wrote in an essay for Teen Vogue. “As we move toward a more tech-centric future, it can be difficult to get past that fear of the unknown. … I wanted to counter that perception of drone technology, and design something that would be used for good.”
The British science fiction anthology television series “Black Mirror” looks at what could go wrong with new technologies. The episode “Hated in the Nation” features robotic bees gone bad. (We won’t spoil it for you more than that, but check it out on Netflix.)
Our Doug Oster dives (not literally!) into a pollinator garden at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium.