Robotic science may (or may not) help us keep up with the death of bees

Beginning in 2006 beekeepers became aware that their honeybee populations were dying off at increasingly rapid rates. Scientists are also concerned about the dwindling populations of monarch butterflies. Researchers have been scrambling to come up with explanations and an effective strategy to save both insects or replicate their pollination functions in agriculture. Although the Plan Bee drones pictured above are just one SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) student's concept for how a swarm of drones could handle pollinating an indoor crop, scientists are considering different options for dealing with the crisis, using modern technology to replace living bees with robotic ones.Researchers from the Wyss Institute and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard introduced the first RoboBees in 2013, and other scientists around the world have been researching and designing their solutions ever since. Honeybees pollinate almost a third of all the food we consume and, in the U.S., account for more than $15 billion worth of crops every year.