It seems like a perfect opportunity for technology to step in and solve problems in the natural world – using tiny helicopter drones to pollinate crops as the number of bees plummets. But amid all the buzz, could this plan for'robot bees' have a sting in the tail? One scientist has suggested the robobees could be taken over by hackers – and turned into killing machines. The robots are under development in both the US and Japan, and it is hoped they could be ready for use within a decade. Under the plans, the drones would wear fuzzy'jackets' that pollen would then stick to, allowing them to pollinate flowers.

As a species, bumblebees aren't doing well, so sadly, we may have to consider a future with fewer of the endangered insects. Humanity would be in trouble without these active pollinators, so Japanese scientists have created drones that mimic them by spreading pollen from plant to plant. Researchers at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology bought $100 drones and affixed patches of horsehair to the bottoms. They then applied liquid ion gels, which MIT Technology Review says are as sticky and moist as Post-It notes, to the horsehair. In tests, the drones were able to fly into the plants, grabbing and releasing pollen from the male and female parts of pink and white Japanese lilies.

A drone that can pollinate flowers may one day work side by side with bees to improve crop yields. About three-quarters of global crop species, from apples to almonds, rely on pollination by bees and other insects. But pesticides, land clearing and climate change have caused declines in many of these creatures, creating problems for farmers. Pollination is needed for reproduction in flowering plants. Male flower parts, or stamens, produce pollen that fertilises female parts, known as pistils, to make seeds.

Given their crucial life in our ecosystem by helping to pollinate flowers, bees are pretty darn important. But with a continuing radical population decline of bees around the world, it may be up to robots to step in and lend a helping hand. That is the mission of an unusual project taking place at Poland's Warsaw University of Technology. For the past four years, researchers there have been working to build robotic bees, called B-Droids, which they hope can carry out some of these tasks. More: Harvard scientists just figured out how to make their robotic bee'perch' on objects to save energy Through various iterations of the project, the robots have grown increasingly sophisticated -- from early wheel-based bots which used computers to find nearby flowers to the latest version, a quadcopter able to move from flower to flower taking pollen samples.