--- title: "This Minuscule Robotic Bee Only Uses Solar Energy to Fly" description: "The Harvard RoboBee X-Wing takes robotics to the next level by sporting solar cells and an extra pair of wings for more stable flight." date: "2019-06-26" modified: "2019-06-26" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/robobee-x-wing-solar-cells-fly" categories: - "Energy" - "Renewable Energy" - "Robotics" - "Robots and Machines" - "Science & Energy" - "Solar Power" tags: - "Harvard" - "robobee" - "robobees" - "the digest" --- # This Minuscule Robotic Bee Only Uses Solar Energy to Fly ![Harvard's RoboBee X-Wing takes the RoboBee to the next level by sporting solar cells and an extra pair of wings for more stable flight.]() *\Image: Harvard Microrobotics Lab/Harvard SEAS/Victor Tangermann\* ## RoboBee X-Wing Researchers at the Harvard Microrobotics Lab have come up with the latest version of their astonishing RoboBee. Introducing: the RoboBee X-Wing — that's the robot's nickname. The RoboBee is a minuscule robot that's inspired by, you guessed it, the biology of a bee. It used to have just two wings and weigh less than [one-tenth of a gram](). But so far, it had to rely on a tether for power, enabling it to fly. https://youtu.be/b2UIr3hXsnk The RoboBee X-Wing takes it to the next level by sporting solar cells and an extra pair of wings for more stable and mostly autonomous flight. ## A Short Flight But there is one big caveat: it can only sustain flight for a measly half a second — with special lights shining down on it from above — since it can't really lug a battery around as that would make it heavier many times over. “Moving from two wings to four wings was really a factor of, how do we increase our lift without also increasing our power consumption,” Harvard engineer E. Farrell Helbling, who worked on the robot and coauthored [the study]() published by *Nature* today, [told *Wired*](). The news comes after a team of engineers from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles built a [four-winged flying robot]() called Bee+ earlier this year, which weighs considerably more (95 grams), but sports a footprint smaller than a penny. **READ MORE:** [What Could Possibly Be Cooler Than RoboBee? RoboBee X-Wing]() \[Wired\] ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()