Anicet Mbida 06:53, November 09, 2022
Anicet Mbida delivers to us every morning what is best in terms of innovation.
This Wednesday, he is interested in a mini robot capable of communicating with bees using their famous dance.
Today's innovation is a first. We managed to communicate with another species in its own language. In this case: bees.
A first, because until now, we were rather trying to ensure that the animals understood our language.
Monkeys are taught sign language, for example.
We train dogs so that they understand us… But we had never tried to reproduce their language, since many scientists are convinced that animals have no language.
On the other hand, we know that they are able to communicate with each other.
Whether with signs, cries or gestures.
It is these means of communication that we are trying to decode today.
And in this area, a step has just been taken.
With a mini robot able to communicate with the bees using their famous dance (when they vibrate and turn on themselves).
And it works !
Bees are very receptive.
Apparently,
But what are they being told through the robot?
We don't talk to them.
We don't talk to them about the rain and the good weather.
It is a dance that helps guide them to the best areas where there is pollen.
But there, the researchers want them to avoid all the places where they risk coming across pesticides or predators.
We know that bees are under threat.
Their population keeps dropping.
So we communicate with them to try to preserve them.
These robots that blow in the ear of bees, are there already some in the hives or is it still research in the lab?
It begins.
The first have just been installed in the hives.
We want to accustom the bees from birth so that they accept the robot as if it were one of their own.
Ultimate goal: to create completely autonomous hives that can guide bees to the right places and make them avoid the bad ones.
We could then install them everywhere and recreate biodiversity.
This is a project called Hiveopolis.
A project supported by the European Union.
An important step has just been taken: being able to make yourself understood by the bees and above all, to gain their trust.