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Thursday, June 25, 2020

Pollinating by Drone and Bubbles

Fascinating detail.   As a long time part time botanist, of interest. But how well can it effectively being done?  Will the use of drones interfere with natural methods?  Depends on the plants involved and their current pollination mechanisms.  A form of biomimicry.   Also a likely way path for developing smaller drones

Drone With Bubble Machine Can Pollinate Flowers Like a Bee
Pollen-carrying soap bubbles could provide a simple and effective method of artificial pollination  By Evan Ackerman in IEEE Spectrum

Researchers in Japan developed a drone equipped with a bubble maker for autonomous pollination.

The tiny biological machines that farms rely on to pollinate the flowers of fruiting plants have been having a tough time of it lately. While folks around the world are working on different artificial pollination systems, there’s really no replacing the productivity, efficiency, and genius of bees, and protecting them is incredibly important. That said, there’s no reason to also work on alternate methods of pollination, and researchers at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) have come up with something brilliant: pollen-infused soap bubbles blown out of a bubble maker mounted to a drone. And it apparently works really well.  ... " 

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