Bees are extremely adept at communicating, even though their brains weigh just two milligrams. They’re so efficient at reaching a consensus, in fact, that researchers created a mini-robot team inspired by their ‘conversations.’
In the search for a new nesting spot, scout bees are known to conduct tiny “waggle dances” to indicate their preferred hive location—slowly winning over swarmmates to join in the process. The moves are tiny but complex, involving moving in figure-eight patterns while shaking their bodies at rapid speed. The bees with the most popular dance part earn final say on where to build. While the three centimeter-wide “kilobots” under the watch of a team at Spain’s University of Barcelona can’t shimmy and shake just yet, they do signal to one another much like bees.
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