Sorry, bees. Drones will soon be taking your jobs.
In these turbulent times, it's hard not to believe the sensational headlines that hype automation's inevitable elimination of most of our jobs. But it turns out that bees might be the first species affected by the impending robo-apocalypse. Facing calamities such as habitat destruction and colony collapse disorder, bees might soon be replace by drones. Eijiro Miyako of the Japanese National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science is using sticky gel to allow drones to transport pollen from flower to flower.
According to David Grossman for Popular Mechanics: "Miyako's not the first person to have this idea. Engineers at Harvard have been working on RoboBees for years. Pollination, after all, is a crucial natural function, vital to mass fertilization of the Earth. The difference is mainly in cost. Rather than spend years developing a perfectly functioning robot, Miyako and his team simply bought tiny drones off the shelf at $100 a pop. They then applied horse hair to recreate a bee's fuzzy exterior, and after that applied Miyako's signature sticky gel.
Using Japanese lilies, Miyako and his team were able to use the drones to transfer pollen from one flower to another. The successful artificial pollination is promising. 'The findings, which will have applications for agriculture and robotics, among others, could lead to the development of artificial pollinators and help counter the problems caused by declining honeybee populations,' Miyako says."
About the Author
Alexis GajewskiAlexis Gajewski
Senior Content Strategist
Alexis Gajewski is a manufacturing writer and editor with nearly 20 years of experience covering the people, practices, and technologies that keep industrial facilities running. For more than a decade, she served as Senior Content Strategist for Plant Services, creating content for plant managers, engineers, and maintenance professionals on a variety of industrial topics.
During her tenure, Alexis worked to develop the brand’s digital strategy and helped launch and produce Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast. She also created The Lighter Side of Manufacturing, a weekly blog that explored the inventive and sometimes humorous side of the industry.
Alexis co-founded Influential Women in Manufacturing, a recognition program that honored 49 women in its first two years, earned an industry award for Best Product Launch, and received a proclamation from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and a commendation from U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth.
She also led newsroom operations and development at a large media company where she set editorial standards, developed training curriculum, and helped support AI adoption for more than 150 editors across 80+ brands spanning manufacturing, industrial processing, automation, and more.
Additionally, Alexis works as a freelance writer and editor, and her areas of interest include continuous improvement, the skilled workforce, and the role of emerging technology on the plant floor.
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