More than 40 percent of the species that help with pollination (植物传粉) are under threat due to the polluted environment. So some researchers have been searching for ways to protect the bees and other crucial pollinators while some engineers have thought perhaps an army of robotic pollinators could keep humans well-supplied in these foods. A team of researchers has recently designed a small drone capable of pollinating flowers. They tested their device on the large, pink flowers of lilies. And it worked.
Exciting as this success was, it is only the first step. The team has yet to figure out how to apply the concept on the massive scale. Could a fleet of robo-pollinators replace the bees?
“Although the answer isn't a straightforward no, it would be a challenging leap to go from this one little drone pollinating one large flower to an army of drones spreading across fields of crops,” says Scott Swinton, an agricultural economist at Michigan State University.
“The successful pollination was fascinating,” Scott Swinton says, “but the device itself might damage the flowers. I wonder how you make sure you're not doing more harm than good to flowers when you have a drone.”
“Furthermore,” he points out, “a lily is a particularly easy flower for a drone to pollinate. To make this more broadly applicable for smaller and more complex flower structures, the drones would need to be particularlyagile.”
Still, Joshua Campbell, an expert at the University of Florida, says “Pollination systems are extremely complex and will always require insects. There is no substitute for bees.”
“As for the technology itself, it is a promising new development in existing drone technology,” he added. Yet he still sees some hurdles ahead before drones can be applied on a large scale.
