Oklahoma State Professor Studying Bees To Further Robotics

A professor at Oklahoma State is furthering his work with aerospace engineering and robotics by studying bees.

Dr. Imraan Faruque said there's a lot to learn from the way insects process information.

"Because when we look at something that literally ten milligrams of neuro material, that is the type of thing we can translate to a single board computer, to the small UAVs that we are trying to fly in the engineering world," he said.

They study the bees through a contraption that leads bees to the hive. Then, they take photos and videos to use and study.

He said they look at things like social interactions between bees as they fly and how bees move their wings.

"When we look at these group and swarm behaviors, if you take one insect out, if you take one robot out, you still have more or less the same behavior," he said.

He said, in a way, they are helping bees, too; as bee populations decrease, the study may come in handy.

"If we do reach a point where we need to almost retrain our honeybees, having a really good scientific basis for that type of thing will put us in a much better situation," he said.

He said he finds it all so interesting but mainly loves the mentorship and collaboration he has with his students.

"It's really taking curiosity and making it useful," he said.