Waggle-dancing robot tells bees where to look for food

Robots are talking with bees. A robotic bee can tell real bees the best places to forage, and at least some of the time they seem to get the message.

Bees communicate using a sequence of movements known as the waggle dance, where the dancer wiggles their body whilst moving in a figure of eight. The orientation and the length of the movements tell other bees the direction and distance of a food source. A robot called RoboBee can mimic this dance.

RoboBee doesn’t actually look much like a bee…