Harvard's 100-Milligram Robobee Can Now Swim as Well as Fly

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Harvard's 100-Milligram Robobee Can Now Swim as Well as Fly

From drone to submarine.
Rachel Pick
New York, US

Harvard's flying Robobee has acquired a new skill: it can now swim.

The tiny Robobee has been in development since 2007, and made an initial debut in 2012. Researchers were hoping it could eventually be used in swarms to pollinate crops, as real bee populations are diminishing worldwide. That dream may still be far off, but Robobee has other valuable applications as a minuscule drone for surveillance or for search-and-rescue. And now Robobee can do something actual bees cannot, "swimming" through water by flapping its wings.

A drone capable of both aerial and aquatic locomotion is pretty impressive, but Harvard is still working out several kinks. First, Robobee is so small that a battery weighs it down, and as a result it has to be connected to a power source. Robobee also weighs only 100 milligrams, and is so light that water's natural surface tension almost prevents it from submerging. A crash landing and some lubrication on the bot's wings seem to have solved this problem for now.

Watch the video to see this bot in action. Your move, bees.