This Robotic Pollinator Is Like a Huge Bee With Wheels and an Arm

Author: Matt Simon

In a world with too many humans and not enough pollinators, robots like the BrambleBee could help.

Yu Gu/West Virginia University

You like eating, yes? Apples, oranges, berries? For these foods we can thank bees and their extraordinary pollinating powers. Unfortunately, to show our appreciation, humans are killing off bees in staggering numbers—destroying their habitats and poisoning them with pesticides. And at the same time, our population is skyrocketing, which means if we can’t get our act together, we have to somehow feed more people with fewer pollinators.

Well, living pollinators, that is. In a greenhouse at West Virginia University, a machine called the BrambleBee is learning to roll around pollinating blackberry bushes, knocking their flowers around (blackberry flowers self-pollinate, so bees or robots just have to jostle them to spread around the pollen). It’s no replacement for bees, but in a world with too many humans and not enough pollinators, robots like this could help feed our kind…