Aside from sharing a name, drone scientists are working on other ways that drones can learn from the world of bees.
The UK is leading the way in this field with Professor James Marshall of Sheffield University recently presenting their work to the American Association for the Advancement of Science Conference. Aided by a £4.8 million grant from UK Research and Innovation, the researchers are studying bees with a view to reverse engineering their brains to power some extremely sophisticated drone technology.
For an insect weighing one tenth of a gram, bees carry a surprising amount of brain power. They can navigate a complex 3D environment, optimising flight distances and memorising features to all them to return to their nest. The complex work involving attaching minute electronic tags tot he bees in the first phase then inserting an electrode into their brain is quite mind boggling. They estimate their progress currently to be a 25% complete map of the bee brain and already they have been able to learn enough to create a drone weighing just 250g which carries all of its brain power on board. The potential that the completion of this work has for the drone industry, particularly in the field of delivery, could be industry changing.
