[QUOTE=Swilly;48555058]And they'll be used under the guise of 'efficiency'.[/QUOTE]
I can already see the bee attacks escalating, with bees crawling all over and stinging people while wiggling the words "THEY TERK EHR JERBS!"
Also, there's a few problems with this, and that's mostly that the technology isn't quite there yet. Solar panels couldn't power these, they're not reliable enough, nor do they provide enough power on that scale for such a device. Second, it takes a decent amount of computing power to get an ornithopter to hover and move in basic directions, let alone the computing power needed to decide where it should go next in an efficient manner.
[QUOTE=Zero-Point;48556032]I can already see the bee attacks escalating, with bees crawling all over and stinging people while wiggling the words "THEY TERK EHR JERBS!"
Also, there's a few problems with this, and that's mostly that the technology isn't quite there yet. Solar panels couldn't power these, they're not reliable enough, nor do they provide enough power on that scale for such a device. Second, it takes a decent amount of computing power to get an ornithopter to hover and move in basic directions, let alone the computing power needed to decide where it should go next in an efficient manner.[/QUOTE]Except that it's entirely possible to program them to act exactly like bees. Flower petals are shaped and colored like they are because they provide a suitable beacon for bees, they guide the bee in much like landing lights on a runway. There isn't much processing power in a bee's tiny, tiny brain to begin with and the amount of code to get an ornithopter to function correctly really isn't that hefty. Actually that's likely to be more of a design issue than a software issue because an efficient airfoil and efficient movement of the airfoil is going to reduce the processing needs considerably. The only real challenge is power, and it's a big one because bees burn [i]a lot[/i] of energy doing what they do and they've had hundreds of millions of years of evolution to overcome that challenge.
I don't see this working unless they install a supercap or something like that and then comes the issue of constant charging. (though this could work if you had a mobile "hive" flying around to support the robees as they do their work)
Oh and likely if the bees are all white or some other benign color then they wouldn't interfere or bother with the normal day-to-day operations of actual bees. Actually it could contribute to a better ecosystem because all these guys are doing is transporting pollen, something bees do entirely by accident.
[QUOTE=Zero-Point;48556032]I can already see the bee attacks escalating, with bees crawling all over and stinging people while wiggling the words "THEY TERK EHR JERBS!"
Also, there's a few problems with this, and that's mostly that the technology isn't quite there yet. Solar panels couldn't power these, they're not reliable enough, nor do they provide enough power on that scale for such a device. Second, it takes a decent amount of computing power to get an ornithopter to hover and move in basic directions, let alone the computing power needed to decide where it should go next in an efficient manner.[/QUOTE]
Its a lot less to do with that and more toward the fact instead of changing how we do things since, as posted before, we know exactly [I]why[/I] its happening.
We're just replacing it with robots.
This is the equivalent of giving coal miners bionic lungs or whatever to protect them instead of just having them work shorter shifts and take the necesary precautions.
Like, it [I]could[/I] work, but it's going to take a lot of hard work, time and money to implement it and there's a much easier solution that will probably affect profit margins a bit but that anyone with common sense would pick. And that is to be more careful with how we use pesticides.
[QUOTE=itisjuly;48552597]Can it fight off wasps and other creatures?[/QUOTE]
I would pay money for a mini bee bot with min 50.cal machine guns to dogfight wasps and hornets.
[editline]27th August 2015[/editline]
and rockets.
Gotta have mini rockets.
On one hand, it's crazy to think that this kind of technology could actually be implemented one day. Robot bees everywhere!!!
On the other hand, it's sad to realize why the technology is even being developed in the first place. No more real bees anywhere...
Great idea! It would be better to save the actual bees though
[QUOTE=ridinmybike;48558093]Great idea! It would be better to save the actual bees though[/QUOTE]
What makes you think we can't attempt both.
Can't wait for all the scrap metal lying around in the grass.
Which will probably be the reason green parties are going to be against it.
[QUOTE=Hervey;48558266]What makes you think we can't attempt both.[/QUOTE]
Yeah. We can use this as a stopgap measure for a period of time while we get legislation containing restrictions on the use of pesticides through in places.
What's the energy efficiency of these things relative to actual bees?
They're gonna need to communicate for coordination. It would take quite a lot of effort to make them self-contained. Also, they need updates to fix bugs... Oh the irony.
Also, these could easily be made to charge through induction, which would be badass. It would mean that all they gotta do to recharge is to rest on a specific surface for a while and they're good to go.
3000 years into the future, its us we are the robots.
[QUOTE=Swilly;48556314]Its a lot less to do with that and more toward the fact instead of changing how we do things since, as posted before, we know exactly [I]why[/I] its happening.
We're just replacing it with robots.[/QUOTE]
And it's not going to work for the reasons I've stated, so it's essentially a huge waste of time (aside from whatever we learn by failing in this endeavor).
[editline]28th August 2015[/editline]
[QUOTE=JumpinJackFlash;48556267]Except that it's entirely possible to program them to act exactly like bees. Flower petals are shaped and colored like they are because they provide a suitable beacon for bees, they guide the bee in much like landing lights on a runway. There isn't much processing power in a bee's tiny, tiny brain to begin with and the amount of code to get an ornithopter to function correctly really isn't that hefty. Actually that's likely to be more of a design issue than a software issue because an efficient airfoil and efficient movement of the airfoil is going to reduce the processing needs considerably. The only real challenge is power, and it's a big one because bees burn [i]a lot[/i] of energy doing what they do and they've had hundreds of millions of years of evolution to overcome that challenge.
I don't see this working unless they install a supercap or something like that and then comes the issue of constant charging. (though this could work if you had a mobile "hive" flying around to support the robees as they do their work)
Oh and likely if the bees are all white or some other benign color then they wouldn't interfere or bother with the normal day-to-day operations of actual bees. Actually it could contribute to a better ecosystem because all these guys are doing is transporting pollen, something bees do entirely by accident.[/QUOTE]
Modern-day image recognition and processing is still a somewhat daunting task, even for desktop computers. A stupidly-small single-chip solution just isn't possible quite yet.
[QUOTE=Zero-Point;48559976]
Modern-day image recognition and processing is still a somewhat daunting task, even for desktop computers. A stupidly-small single-chip solution just isn't possible quite yet.[/QUOTE]
Agree with you, but you don't need much processing power for image recognition from 64x64 camera.
Though I can imagine robotic bee getting stuck in the trees and just 'die' there. So yeah, it's long way to go.
[QUOTE=Fourier;48560655]Agree with you, but you don't need much processing power for image recognition from 64x64 camera.
Though I can imagine robotic bee getting stuck in the trees and just 'die' there. So yeah, it's long way to go.[/QUOTE]
A 64x64 image will give you absolute jack to work off of if you're targeting something as small as a flower from even a yard or two away, all they would show up as is a single point of light, and if there's a FIELD of flowers? It won't know whether to shit or go blind.
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