(Image Source: Technovelgy)
 
BY JIM FLINK
ANCHOR CHRISTINA HARTMAN
 
You're watching multisource tech news analysis from Newsy.
 
 
Wanna hear the latest science buzz?
It’s on a robotic bee -- and its moves -- called the waggle dance.
The Atlantic says -- this isn’t about what’s hip in the hive.  Rather -- it’s a dance for the direction of dinner.

“The waggle dance follows something like a figure-eight pattern. The middle part of the eight (called the waggle run) is oriented relative to gravity at the same angle the bees should fly relative to the sun in order to get to the food. The speed of the dance is thought to communicate the distance. It's basic geometry: Once the bees know the angle to fly and the distance, they can find the food.”

So -- how does the robot bust a move?
Here it is -- courtesy the Berlin scientists engaged in the study.
Turns out -- there’s a hiccup in the gyrations. The robot can't seem to get enough other bees to pay attention to its dance.
Scientists aren’t sure why.
Is it a vibe? Faulty phermones?  Or something else?
(video cource: Robobiene)
 
New Scientist notes -- the bot bee was successful in getting the other drones off their duffs -- but not in the same beehive.  Which is where it gets complicated.

“The bees responded by leaving the hive, but returned to their old feeders. For now, it looks like RoboBee persuaded them to forage, but failed to communicate where to go. The team is confident RoboBee didn't just scare away the foragers, as honeybees respond to intruders by stinging, not fleeing.”

Then there’s the little problem of the dancing robot stepping on the other bees.
More like -- running them over.
Peer review site Plos One notes -- gonna have to break out the screw driver and magnifying glass -- and make a few modifications.

“….honeybees share a common brain function that maps the experience of the field trip and the hive situation to the very dance motion....That common mapping function might be seen as a genetic convention and thus adds a symbolic character to the dance. Yet of now, we do not know how this function works in detail...”
 
 
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Transcript by Newsy

Tech News: Robotic Bee Busts Moves

Robotic Bee Busts Moves

August 22, 2011
(1:47)
The latest moves in the insect world belong to a robotic bee, and it's all about finding food.
   
TRANSCRIPT

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