Israeli Researchers Create Robotic Pollinator

In response to the threat of the global decline in the bee population on the multitude of crops that rely on the honey gatherers for pollination, researchers at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University’s robotics lab have created a drone that can mimic bees’ activities as well as pollinate flowers. In an effort to prevent a disruption of the global food supply, these robotic bees use artificial intelligence and learning algorithms to detect and pollinate the correct flower specimen.

The university is also working on robotic solutions for another big problem in the agricultural sector: a lack of manpower for picking produce. The researchers are integrating automation and robotics capabilities to develop a solution for managing the tedious tasks of spraying and harvesting as efficiently as possible.