1. By Olin Thompson

2.  A robobee is a small delicate robot that was designed to act the same as a bee.  It is a soft robot so it doesn’t have to avoid objects - it can just go through them. For example, it can squeeze through a crack in a door.

3.  The inventor of this amazing technological advancement is Robert Wood and his team.  The robobee is very small. It has a three centimeter wingspan. It flaps its wings 120 times per second and it hovers along preprogrammed paths. Its wings were designed to mimic those of a common housefly.

5.  Electricity/energy is given to the robot through a wire.  It has motion because it uses a process called piezoelectricity.  Piezoelectricity is a process in which electricity converts into motion.  Robert Wood and his team are working to find a battery small enough to fit inside the robobee and still be able to program it.

6. Pollination is when pollen is transferred from the anther to the stigma of a plant in order for reproduction to occur. Cross-pollination is when pollen is transferred from one plant to another. Scientists are concerned about the survival of many crops because bees have been mysteriously dying, and bees are the insect responsible for most pollination.

7.  Robobees could help pollination because they act like bees and they could pollinate like bees.  They can’t do it yet however because Robert Wood hasn’t invented a battery small enough yet. For now, a robobee has to stay connected to a wire to be powered.  If Robert Wood can get a battery small enough then the pollination problem will be solved.

8. Search and rescue is the process of searching for injured people at a disaster site, such as a burning building and caves collapsing. Sometimes humans can’t do search and rescue. For example, there might be very toxic gases in the wreckage site, the area might be too small, or the temperature is too hot or too cold.

9.  Robobees could help search and rescue because they can detect gases, can fit through small places where people could not, such as a crack in a canyon, and can withstand heat or cold.  A main reason they can’t do that yet is they have to stay attached to a wire in order to be active and fly. If there was a battery small enough the whole world of search and rescue would be revolutionized.

10.  Robobees could help traffic monitoring.  They act like a drone but only smaller. Again, power is the problem: without a small enough battery the robobee has to be powered by wire. For now drones are better for traffic monitoring.

11.  Robobees are an amazing invention however they do have some flaws such as:  One of the biggest challenges that robobees face is that there isn’t a battery small and light enough to fit in the robobee.  Another challenge that robobees face is that many people feel that they are invading their privacy.  The last challenge that they face is that they have to stay hooked up to a wire and they aren’t free for exploration.

12.  Robobees are an amazing invention and hold promise for many of the problems that we face in society.  Therefore it is worth it to keep trying to find a battery for this incredible invention.