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Harvard's Robotic Bees Generate High-Tech Buzz
coondoggie writes "Harvard researchers recently got a $10 million grant to create a colony of flying robotic bees, or RoboBees, to (among other things) spur innovation in ultra-low-power computing and electronic 'smart' sensors; and refine coordination algorithms to manage multiple, independent machines. The 5-year, National Science Foundation-funded RoboBee project could lead to a better understanding of how to mimic artificially the unique collective behavior and intelligence of a bee colony; foster novel methods for designing and building an electronic surrogate nervous system able to sense and adapt to changing environments; and advance work on the construction of small-scale flying mechanical devices, according to the Harvard RoboBee Web site."
They really should be trying to find something else: more reliable pollination. Yes real bees already do this but mass-produced robo-bees, besides being really cool, don't catch colony-dropping diseases.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
Maybe they should have mimicked hornets instead of yellow jackets...
Everything you do at MIT is pointless.
You don't actually do anything at Harvard.
How we know is more important than what we know.
I've always thought it was interesting that we take the democratizing power of tech for granted. Certainly, those in Iran, China, or other places around the world may have access which, in pre-Internet days, would've been impossible. But I've always thought the democratizing power of tech would go into reverse with stuff like this article discusses. Imagine a true surveillance society, powered by those with the funds to create this kind of tech (i.e. governments). That could be the direction at least a few governments are headed in.
I'm not saying that this will happen, but I just think most folks have not considered the very long term implications of technology. Over the long-term technology may not be democratizing at all.
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
Your firearms are useless against them!
Now we can see Nicholas Cage yelling "Not the bees! AHHHHHHH They're ROBOTS!"
No. Just plain no.
Paying people to create robotic hiveminds?
That way lies madness. Terrible, stinging, robotic madness.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Um... um... teach them to spell! Robotic Spelling Bees! Woohoo!
My other car is a 1984 Nark Avenger.
Now we just need to get them to make honey and pollinate plants, before the real bee colonies all collapse...
Harvard's Robotic Bees Generate High-tech Buzz
said robotic bees also generate horribly obvious story title pun on /.
0 = 1 + e^(Alt something)
...of a book called prey http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prey_%28novel%29
... Thats got to sting!
. .
As long as Keanu Reeves and a Large one eyed robot aren't involved.
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
Leela: "What's the mission?"
Farnsworth: "Collecting honey. Ordinary honey."
Leela: "That doesn't sound so dangerous."
Farnsworth: "This is no ordinary honey! It's produced by vicious space^H robo bees. A single sting of their hideous neuro^H robotoxin can cause instant death!"
In the near future...
"5 Million dollars worth of robo-bees were destroyed when a robotic "Pooh Bear" attempted to retrieve honey from the hive. The Pooh Bear lodged itself into the only high opening, preventing the colony from being able to return to their re-charging stations. Their charge depleted, they fell to the ground and shattered. A "r.a.b.b.i.t." is reportedly en-route to retrieve the pooh bear."
He's protected from 3 inch bees, that's right.
He's protected from 3 inch bees, tonight!
A 3 inch bee can't sting this guy!
A 3 inch bee shouldn't even try!
He's protected from 3 inch bees, that's right!
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
You've just matured. You may now leave the basement...
Impetuous! Homeric!
I, for one, welcome our new killer robotic bee overlords.
Shades of Michael Chricton's Prey. Fun.
The diversity and expression of human opinion is essential to human survival.
Boston dynamics teams up with Harvard to make a robot dog with robot bees in its mouth and when it barks it shoots bees at you.
Is it bad that the first thing I thought of was marketing shills?
This appears to have military applications, say a swarm of cheap cruise missiles that any country could afford. Other than that it is way cool.
Nate
They'll just start adding them together.
UltraUltra low power
UltraSuperMicroMini low power
PicoPicoPicoPicoPower
Or we could skip all that and do what ST does; Embellish a bit and call it "zeropower" (which is trademarked no less).
Zeropower NVRAM - Which of course is battery backed, and uses... power.
Sent from my PDP-11
Michael's Crichton Prey anyone?
The bee he is a busy soul,
he has no time for birth control.
And that is why in times like these,
there are so many sons of bees.
I am a given cynic but does it remind anyone else here of Michael Crichton's 'Prey' where a swarm of nano-robots develops enough intelligence to turn back on humans ....
Technically true, but the same can be achieved with far cheaper computer simulations. In fact I suspect said simulation would be run *before* said behavior is implemented in the pricey flying robots.
\u262D = \u5350
The results of such experiments are described in 1964 novel The Invincible by StanisÅaw Lem. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invincible.
The exact same project done at most universities would at best get a reference of "scientists do XYZ". Harvard does it (or MIT, even more) and not only it's more likely to get promoted, it also gets the headline "Harvard researchers do XYZ". Slashdot is for intelligent people (ok, mostly). We shouldn't be feeding the hype cycle.
Half a bee, philosophically, Must, ipso facto, half not be. But half the bee has got to be Vis a vis, its entity. D'you see? But can a bee be said to be Or not to be an entire bee When half the bee is not a bee Due to some ancient injury?
. .
Back in the sixties I had a band called Electric Honey
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
I doubt that $10 million is enough to get very far in reverse engineering biological bees, much less building a colony of robo-bees with features similar to bio-bees. Nature has spent millions of years on a massively parallel R&D project to create bees as we see them today. At MIT rates, $10 million should be just enough to get some professors by until they need more grant money, and maybe pad the resumes of some grad students. There will be no robo-bee overlords anytime soon.
What a waste of money, if you want a swarm of mechanical bees place a bounty of 10 million on it and it will get done!
Got Code?
with robotic bees in its mouth so that when it robotically barks it shoots robotic bees at you.
Just one thing. What happens if a few of these robo-bees escape and are captured by (as we will now call them) bio-bees? What if the bio-bees dismantle the few escaped robo-bees and adapt the technology to suit themselves? I'll tell you what will happen! We will have an unstoppable force of nature on our hands! A collective of cyberneticly enhanced bees sending their drones out across the planet, destroying all who stand in their way, and assimilating all those brave bees who might resist! Disaster! Disaster I tell you!
Science: all about could, not about should.
Who are you people, and what have you done with the real Slashdot?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOq1ViF8oFk
Anytime a grant is designed to 'spur innovation', that raises a red flag in my book. It isn't a grant to actually innovate, no, that would be too useful...instead it is a grant that is supposed to inspire others to innovate!
Hmm Robo Bee sounds like a predecessor to Borg colonies. What do you think, Jean Luc?
This is worse than my 'Terminator nightmares' ! ! . . . .I wasnt dead chuffed when I first heard about Africanised Bees n e way! .... Maybe we coud race them?
I heard nanobees kick robobees asses.
I think it's obligatory to reference Asimov in any story about robo-bees.
...giving new meaning to the phrase... Attack of the killer bees!!!!!!!!!!!
Who needs Terminators when you can have a bunch of little robo-bees attack humans with neurotoxin stings.
You're after my robot bee!
this is the most important sig ever! In your face 446154!
Hey, I was forced by the meme gods... Please have some pitty on me!
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
I've followed the development of these extremely small flyers for some time and it seems to me that the real technical issue is not the smarts and sensors that you need to build into them - after all, we can make custom circuits just about as small as we need to. The real issue with these flyers and even smaller nanoscale devices is a viable power source. Every video you have seen to date has run these things tethered to an external power source. It just won't be real until the bee (or nano device) can lift off the ground while carrying its own power supply, whatever that might be. Until then, it's all just marketing hype (not to take anything away from the incredible technical achievements so far).