Robotic bees — A Solution to the Declining Population?

What are some things you know without which survival is extremely hard?

Air, Water, Food (or maybe smartphones) are the few things that might have crossed your mind! However there is an extremely vital insect species, in the absence of which, Earth would be really different from what it is at present. We are talking about the star of this article: Bees.

But how is this insect responsible for functioning ecosystems and even economies all across the globe?

This is because bees, along with some other insects, are crucial for the process of pollination, that is, the transfer of pollen grains for plant reproduction. This single process is directly responsible for 70% of the fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts we consume every day (1). As a matter of fact, one out of every three bites we eat on a given day has an almost direct contribution by a bee. Without pollination, entire food chains can be at risk. Take almonds for example. The hulls of these nuts are used as feed for farm cattle and chickens. Since bees are essential for efficient pollination and production of nuts, fewer bees would mean fewer almonds, leading to declining livestock and ultimately less milk, cheese, eggs, and meat products. In addition to that, cereals or other food products which use almonds will cease to exist. Your morning coffee as well as your comfortable cotton clothes will disappear from the planet because both of these crops require the contribution of pollinators. Basically, our diet would get restricted to just wheat, rice, and corn as these are wind-pollinated crops.

The ecosystem will also be disrupted in their absence as the reproduction level among most plants will witness a tremendous plump. As a result, multiple plant species will start going extinct. This will then have a ripple effect as animals who consume any of these plants will also face food shortages. Soil enrichment, clean water supply, natural beauty as well as products and cosmetics dependent on these plants will also face consequences.

Along with these food items, pollination is responsible for more than 200 billion (2)

dollars of global agricultural revenue. So a disruption to this process will cause a massive global economic strain, especially for the farmers.

Are we heading towards bee extinction?

Since 2006, the bee count has fallen significantly. You might have heard of only a few bee species such as honeybees or bumblebees. However, there exist over 20,000 bee species worldwide. U.S. National Agricultural Statistics show a honey bee decline from about 6 million hives in 1947 to 2.4 million hives in 2008, a 60 percent reduction. In addition, the number of bee colonies per hectare has also declined by 90 percent since 1962. In the early stages, mites, viruses, and parasites were put to the blame for this shrink. But recently insecticides, especially neonicotinoids, have been observed as the major reason for the dwindling bee population. Along with these, factors such as climate change, mono-cropping, and habitat loss also contribute to the same.

So what is the way ahead? You probably won’t believe the next few lines so stick with us! Scientists have been working on developing tiny robots, equipped with AI, which can achieve flight and will be able to perform artificial pollination. The drones would carry pollen from one plant to another, using sensors and cameras to detect the locations of the crops. These robots, or RoboBees, can also stick to surfaces, swim underwater, and dive in and out of water. These robots weigh one-tenth of a gram, are roughly the size of a paperclip and will be powered by ultra-lightweight solar cells (3). To add to the bizarreness, when out on the field they will be capable of using swarm intelligence, that is communicating with each other, with the help of AI. These aren’t just terms you hear in a sci-fi series anymore, these are now in a pretty advanced stage. First researched upon and introduced by Harvard University in 2013, several organizations and researchers are currently working upon it. The fact that Walmart filed a patent for a robot bee that could potentially pollinate crops in March 2018 is enough to emphasize how real this is! (4)

So that’s it? The problem is solved and we all can now live happily with our new robobee friends, right? Not really! The scientists and researchers deserves an applause for their creativity and breakthrough for something this outlandish. However, there are certain issues with robobees, and going uninformed about those would be unfair for you as a reader. The first issue that humans will face if they want to implement this technology is matching the gigantic number of honeybees required for the job. A study suggests that the world had approximately 16 trillion managed honeybees in 2016, and that was still insufficient to meet the global need for agricultural pollination. (4) Reaching a number even close to this will require an enormous amount of resources in the form of time, energy and money. The manufacture of robobees is also environmentally damaging. Materials are needed to create structural elements, plastics, membranes, wires and foils, resins, and carbon fiber. Fine metalwork is used for electronics, and chemicals for high-performance battery cells and to generate solar power.

If robobees working open fields and orchard crops stray or become damaged, unretrieved devices will litter and pollute the environment. They may leach battery contents and other chemicals into waterways, oceans, and forests. They will leave microplastics as they disintegrate. This is especially concerning since proposed designs are consumable and damage-prone, but not biodegradable or recyclable. Not to mention, Robobees would be harmful if accidentally consumed by the countless birds, reptiles, and amphibians that live on a steady diet of the flying insects they mimic. An even worse scenario will be if these flying robots get ingested by aircraft engines. The hard materials are likely to damage engine components, possibly causing catastrophic failure. (5)

Robobees could displace wild and managed insect pollinators, many of which have highly specialized interactions with endemic flowering plants, ultimately leading to increased human dependence on alternative pollination practices for food production. The robobees are still not as good as the natural pollinators when it comes to things like teamwork.

SO WHAT’S THE FINAL VERDICT?

“It would be extremely expensive and costly for the environment to go down that route when we already have bees that are free, that are self-replicating, are carbon-neutral, and have been pollinating for 120 million years,” argues Goulson, a specialist in the ecology and conservation of insects. (6)

In addition to this, there are thousands of different species of bee. Humans will only be able to replicate one or two of those types which will be a slow and costly process. Trying to manufacture these seems like a really expensive alternative to something that we already have. That money could be so much better spent looking after the bees that we’ve already got. Countries all across should take measures to protect the remaining natural pollinators. In the UK, for example, environmental secretary Michael Gove has already announced plans to back a total ban on insect-harming pesticides in fields across Europe. Dozens of organisations around the globe are coming up with innovative initiatives so as to protect bee populations. For example, World Bee Project, England created the world’s first globally coordinated honeybee hive monitoring initiative. Another organisation called Pesticide Action Network Europe, Belgium advocates for a pesticide-free Europe by working closely with government representatives to try to reduce the use of hazardous pesticides.

Although we feel that these robots are a long way away from becoming the optimal pollinators, they may well have a place in our future. They can be used in environments that are unsuitable for natural pollinators, such as a research lab where precision is needed in the crossing of plant breeds. These can also be used on planets like Mars, if humans can achieve life there in future, where a swarm of honeybees may not be the safest solution. In the long run, they may even have a potential advantage over natural pollinators as pollination would be their sole function. Bees, on the other hand, are looking to feed themselves, and pollination happens as a by-product.

With all that being said, we know that the future is unpredictable and time can only tell what will happen in the coming years. All we hope is that humans can find efficient alternatives so as to reduce the environmental impact that this problem may create. Robobees or no robobees, all we want is a bee-utiful world to live in!

What are your thoughts on robotic bees? Do you think it can solve the problem of declining bee population? Let us know in the comments down below!

Author & Illustrator: Pratham Sehgal
Supervisor: Professor Alka Kacker, Convenor, 180 DC Hansraj

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