RoboBee was the first insect-scale flying robot developed by Harvard researchers in 2013.
The machine was inspired by the flight of bees and weighed roughly 80 milligrams. Its wings beat at about 120 times per second, driven by artificial muscles called piezoelectric actuators. The design demonstrated that tiny robots could achieve controlled flight despite their extremely small size.
RoboBee was created by researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Its original version remained tethered because carrying a battery and full control electronics was difficult at that scale.
The project was not intended to imitate a bee perfectly or serve as a consumer drone. Researchers investigated possible uses in pollination, environmental monitoring, and search operations, while also studying the major challenges of energy storage, control, and manufacturing.