In the article, "The RoboBees Flies Solo,"
Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science (2019)
addressed researchers’ breakthroughs to a decade-long process of making a
self-sustaining miniature flying autonomous vehicle.
According to the article, the researchers faced difficulty in finding the perfect balance between mass and power at such a tiny scale, where efficient flight is proven to be much harder to achieve.
Throughout the decade, researchers working on this project made several important and major additions to the design of the vehicle such as including an additional pair of wings and making adjustments to the actuator and transmission ratio and thus enabled them to “put everything we need on-board without using more power, ” as Jafferis stated in the article .
This particular change in the project allowed researchers to remove the power cord and add solar cells, allowing RoboBees to achieve a self-sustaining function and fly untethered.
Although the article provided us with the information on how untethered flight was achieved, it failed to provide explanations on how such changes would benefit users as well as assurance that with the implementation of such changes, our society stand to reap more benefits
One missing aspect from
the article is the practicality of the changes they made for the Robobees. It
mentioned that it made changes to the actuator and transistor ratio and by
doing so they were able to generate more lift and "put everything they
need on-board without using more power" but it missed out on mentioning the
impact that such an improvement has towards society. As pointed out by Mario
(2019) "drones can carry impressive loads, because it is their original
purpose and these batteries are designed to handle that extra weight and so
they don’t lose flight time" although the actuator and transmission ratio
provide more lift, it doesn’t necessarily provide the speed needed for rescue
effort nor does it provide the ability to carry heavy load for agricultural
effort.
The article is also
missing out on how the changes to the battery is beneficial to society. It
stated “The Robobee X-Wing needs the power of about three Earth suns to fly,
making outdoor flight out of reach for now. Instead, the researchers simulate
that level of sunlight in the lab with halogen lights.” Through this statement
it tells us that the Robobees aren’t going to be useful in outdoor conditions
as they can only fly under controlled environment.
The article is also lacking in assurance that Robobees can be more beneficial than harmful. As bees are currently about to face extinction, the presence of such robotics bees may not aid our effort in trying to preserve these real small insects as pointed out by Perry (2016) "Will we become more lax with environmental regulations, now that we know we have a replacement for bees?" Similar to when Albert Nobel first created dynamite for good purposes, Robobees which were created with good intentions might end up in the wrong hands and that could result in devastating results as quoted by Hyman (n.d.) "What’s stopping someone from using them for espionage? With their small and efficient bodies and ability to control themselves, they’d be very worthy allies for intelligence agencies and experts in corporate espionage."
In conclusion, this article will only be beneficial for researchers interested in the backstory and progress of the creation of a miniature untethered flying drone but it will not appeal to general public.
Sources:
Harvard John A. Paulson
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. (2019, June 26). The RoboBee flies
solo: Cutting the power cord for the first untethered flight. ScienceDaily.
Retrieved from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190626133712.htm
Hyman, W.
(n.d.). Robobees: The Autonomous Flying Micro-robots. Retrieved
from https://pitt.edu/~wsh9/essay.html
Mario. (2019, December 05). How Much
Weight Can a Drone Carry? Retrieved
from https://www.dronetechplanet.com/how-much-weight-can-a-drone-carry/
Perry, P. (2016, October 12). Harvard’s Robobees Could Save Us or Become a Method for Surveillance. Retrieved from https://bigthink.com/philip-perry/harvards-robobees-could-save-us-in-a-crisis-or-become-a-new-method-for-surveillance
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