Robotic bees for crop pollination: Why drones cannot replace biodiversity.

Journal: The Science of the total environment
PMID: 29909334

Abstract

The notion that robotic crop pollination will solve the decline in pollinators has gained wide popularity recently (Fig. 1), and in March 2018 Walmart filed a patent for autonomous robot bees. However, w present six arguments showing that this is a technically and economically inviable 'solution' at present and poses substantial ecological and moral risks: (1) despite recent advances, robotic pollination is far from being able to replace bees to pollinate crops efficiently; (2) using robots is very unlikely to be economically viable; (3) there would be unacceptably high environmental costs; (4) wider ecosystems would be damaged; (5) it would erode the values of biodiversity; and, (6) relying on robotic pollination could actually lead to major food insecurity.

Authors

  • Simon G Potts
    Centre for Agri-Environmental Research, School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, Reading University, Reading RG6 6AR, UK. Electronic address: s.g.potts@reading.ac.uk.
  • Peter Neumann
    Institute of Bee Health, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern and Agroscope, Schwarzenburgstrasse 161, CH-3097 Bern, Switzerland. Electronic address: peter.neumann@vetsuisse.unibe.ch.
  • Bernard Vaissière
    Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), UR406 Abeilles & Environnement, 228 route de l'aérodrome, F-84914 Avignon Cedex 9, France. Electronic address: bernard.vaissiere@inra.fr.
  • Nicolas J Vereecken
    Agroecology Lab, Interfaculty School of Bioengineering, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Boulevard du Triomphe CP 264/2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium. Electronic address: nicolas.vereecken@ulb.ac.be.

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