Engineers are creating a robotic bumblebee that can pollinate plants on Mars

A team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is developing a miniature robot similar to a bumblebee that can flap its wings up to 400 times per second and potentially pollinate plants, CNN reports.

The device weighs less than a paper clip, can hover in the air, flip over, and reach speeds of up to 2 meters per second. It is being developed by fourth-year graduate student Yi-Xuan Xiao, who also writes algorithms to control the device's movement.

The robot uses artificial muscles that lengthen and contract to create wing movement. The wings are laser-cut, and the internal mechanisms, similar in size to watch parts, are fabricated in an MIT lab.

According to Professor Kevin Chen, head of the Soft and Micro Robotics Laboratory, the goal of the project is not to replace natural pollinators, but to create solutions for environments where insects do not survive, including special farms with ultraviolet lighting or even other planets.

"If you’re going to grow something on Mars, you probably don’t want to bring a lot of natural insects to do the pollination. That’s where our robot could potentially come into play," said graduate student developer Yi-Xuan Xiao.

In addition to the bumblebee, the team is also working on a robot that can hop like a grasshopper. The device, smaller than a human finger, can jump up to 20 centimeters and move across a variety of surfaces, from grass to ice. According to Xiao, such a model is more energy-efficient compared to flying models.

Such mini-robots could also be useful for search and rescue missions or in the investigation of places such as the inside of a pipeline or a gas turbine engine.

Both robots are currently powered by wires, as it is currently too difficult to place an autonomous power source on such small devices. According to the developers, the next stage will be the integration of batteries and sensors to transmit information to the robots. According to Professor Chen, fully autonomous versions of such devices could appear in 20–30 years.