As a Dog beekeeper, I find Walmart’s foray into the world of Bees ridiculous!  Recently Walmart filed a patent for “autonomous robotic bees,” to be used as “pollination drones.”  According to their patent application, small unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, would be programmed to go from plant to plant collecting pollen and then go on to another plant to deposit that pollen.  Then a second drone would follow along, checking to make sure the pollen was properly applied.  Are they serious?  They want to replace hardworking Bees with robots?

Ok, I get it.  The Honey Bee population is in serious trouble, and need our help.  Researchers have found that Bees have been in a steady state of decline for years now.  In fact, between 2016 – 2017, beekeepers in the United States lost 33 percent of their Bees, and in other years it was as high as 44 percent.  Yet Bees are needed to pollinate nearly one-third of the world’s agricultural crops.  So of course scientists are worried.  But to invest all that time and effort into making Robo-Bees, just seems silly to me.  Why not invest in trying to solve the problem of colony collapse caused by the overuse of pesticides and habitat destruction?

Now in all fairness Walmart isn’t the first to consider making Robot Bees.  Scientists at Harvard University have been experimenting with autonomous drone insects for a few years now.  And in 2017 Japanese scientists created a palm-sized remote controlled drone with patches of gel covered horsehair, and used it to pollinate flowers.  Surprisingly it did work, but the logistics of synching these drone pollinators with a computer program is inefficient and too expensive at this point to make it worthwhile.  Besides, what if these Robo-Bees get hacked?  The Netflix show, Black Mirror, had an episode where swarms of Robot Bees were used to kill people!

Going back to the Walmart patent, in their application they even go as far as to say their autonomous robotic bees would make a sound so that they could communicate with each other and a docking station.  Now here’s something I am knowledgable about!  Nothing compares to the sound of the real thing!  Take for example this Robo-Dog I’m holding between my paws.  Although with a flick of a switch it makes an annoying yapping sound, it by no means sounds like a real Dog.  No self-respecting squirrel would fear that yapping.  Even its attempt at “walking” pales in comparison, and could never replace the valuable service of our neighborhood patrol.  So why would you put a Robot Bee in charge of something so important as pollinating our crops?  It is not clear if this proposal is even feasible, or if the US Patent Office will approve Walmart’s patent application.  However, in the meantime, I’m going to continue doing my best to keep my hives happy, healthy, and pollinating the good old fashion way!