Bee Brains Help to Make Robots Smarter

Bee Brains Help to Make Robots Smarter

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Honey bee brains could soon be helping robots act more independently. The way that bees smell and see is being studied in a £1m project to produce a simulation of the insect’s sensory systems. The simulated bee brain will then be used by a flying robot to help it make decisions about how to navigate safely. Robots that emerge from the research project could help in search and rescue missions or work on farms mechanically pollinating crops.

The researchers, which involves scientists from the Universities of Sheffield and Sussex, aims to create models of the neural systems in a bee’s brain that helps it make sense of what it sees and smells. The working model of the sensory systems will then be used in a robot to see if it can move around the world with the sophistication of a honey bee.