A student at Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia has developed a Bee Drone to be a robotic flower pollinator.
Bees are a vital part of our daily lives whether we realize it or not. With the recent decline in honeybees, it’s becoming more of a priority to sustain them. Honeybees’ essential role in pollination allows for the production of grown crops, including apples, melons, and blueberries, all of which end up on our plates. Anna Haldewang, a senior from the Savannah College of Art and Design, was tasked with a project for a design class and she may have found a solution to this problem. She created a Bee Drone, also known as Plan Bee. Plan Bee is a robotic bee that is designed to mimic how bees pollinate flowers and crops. The bee drone sucks in pollen from a plant and transfers it onto other flowers in cross-pollination. The drone itself is made from foam core with a plastic-shell body and propellers in order to keep it airborne. There are small holes underneath the mainframe through which the drone sucks in pollen from a flower as it’s hovering above it. While the drone is in its early stages in terms of the engineering, Haldewang has plans for its future and has even filed a patent application. “I would love to see people use it in their backyards and even create custom gardens with it.” She wants it to be used as an educational tool so people can understand the process of pollination.
“With an actual bee, it’s so small you don’t notice it and how it’s pollinating flowers. With the drone, you can see how the process works.”
Victor Ermoli, the university’s Dean, said that out of the 1,600 new concepts at SCAD, Haldewang’s Plan Bee stood out. “The design is self-explanatory and it offers a very clear solution,” Ermoli stated. Now the question remains, is this drone a viable source of technology? Can it be used in large-scale situations? Haldewang and Ermoli believe it could serve a greater purpose. What do you think? Is Plan Bee the next step in the farming process? Do you think we’ll see technology like this in Colorado? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!