RoboBee

A tiny robot that mimics a bee. It has a black abdomen with two veined wings.
An insect-inspired robot. Photo: Harvard Microrobotics Lab

RoboBee is a small flapping-wing robot modeled on one of the busiest and most useful insects of all time: the bee. The goal is to create a colony of robotic bees that mimic the behavior of real bees.

Creator

Harvard University

Year
2009
Country
United States 🇺🇸
Categories
Features
RoboBee takes off, sort of. Video: Harvard Microrobotics Lab

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Did you know?

One type of RoboBee is completely printable, assembling itself out of a sequence of flat layers like a pop-up book.

A robotic bee perches on the side of a quarter.
"I conquer this coin in the name of Queen Bee." Photo: Harvard Microrobotics Lab
Multiple images in a row show the RoboBee's wing flapping.
RoboBee flaps its wings to fly. Photo: Harvard Microrobotics Lab

History

RoboBee was developed by a team of researchers led by Prof. Robert J. Wood at the Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory. The project began in the laboratory of Wood's then-advisor, Ronald S. Fearing, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and later migrated to Harvard. The insectlike robots Woods and his colleagues are creating are intended to perform search and reconnaissance operations, especially where humans can't go. For inspiration, the researchers focused on the two-winged insects of the order Diptera, which includes houseflies, hoverflies, and fruit flies. Over the years, as the robot's hardware and control improved, the Harvard team demonstrated RoboBee steering in midair, landing and swimming in water, hovering and pivoting, and flying untethered while powered by lasers and solar cells.

One of the robot bees attached to black plating on a table.
A RoboBee is born. Photo: Harvard Microrobotics Lab
An updated version of RoboBee has a more complex translucent yellow rectangular base, small legs and a three pronged stabilizer with translucent yellow rectangles.
The new hybrid RoboBee can dive in and out of water. Photo: Yufeng Chen/Harvard SEAS

Specs

Overview

Modular, easy-to-fabricate design. Equipped with bio-inspired actuators, sensors, and flying control mechanisms.

Status

Ongoing

Year

2009

Website
Width
3 cm
Weight
0.00005 kg to 0.0002 kg | 0.0004 lb (depending on version)
Speed
3.6 km/h
Sensors

Gyroscopes, optical flow sensors, ocelli sensor (insect-inspired horizon detection sensors).

Actuators

Piezoelectric bending bimorph cantilevers

Degrees of Freedom (DoF)
3 to 5 (depending on model)
Materials

Combination of various materials, including composites, ceramics, polymers, and metals. "Pop-up book MEMS" fabrication method.

Software

Custom software

Power

Tethered