The MIT develops a robot abeection to pollinate plants on Mars
This little robot inspired by bees could one day pollinate plants on Mars. © Mit
Insects are the result of millions of years of evolution. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are inspired to create very small robots. The latest is an extremely light robot, weighing less than a trombone.
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Insects play a fundamental role in our ecosystems, but the bee in particular is threatened. The Robot Abeille developed by MIT could one day make up for its absence, especially in environments hostile to these insects, and even be used on Mars.
If you want to cultivate something on Mars, you will probably not want to take many natural insects to ensure pollination. This is where our robot could potentially come into play.
A miniature technology concentrate
This small machine, which weighs only 750 milligrams, can beat its wings up to 400 times per second. It can thus reach a flight speed of 2 m/s and even turn around or fly on site. The robot has flexible artificial muscles that lie down and contract to beat the wings. If researchers do not want to fully replace bees, these robots could be very useful in certain environments, such as vertical farms with stacked crops and lit by ultraviolet lights.
Researchers also work on other insect robots, including one inspired by locusts. In balance on a small stem, it is able to jump up to 20 centimeters in height. It could move on different grounds, such as grass, ice or a leaf, and would be much more economical in energy than a flying robot.
An energy autonomy challenge
Despite their small size, the abeection robots have enough free space to be equipped with tiny batteries or sensors, in order to allow the machine to fly alone. However, one of the main obstacles to the use of these robotic insects is autonomy.
The batteries are heavy and very difficult to integrate into robots of this size. The prototypes are currently fed by wires to get around this problem. According to Kevin Chen, professor at MIT and one of the researchers working on robots, it may still have to wait 20 to 30 years before being able to deploy these robots and that they are completely autonomous.
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