Design Summary Analysis 1

In the article, “The RoboBee Flies Solo,” Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (2019) has stated that after decades worth of research, it has successfully developed technologies to create the lightest ever vehicle to maintain sustained untethered flight.

The article states that it has developed an extremely lightweight circuit and have integrated high-efficiency solar cells to tackle the trade-off between mass and power. The additional pair of wings and more efficient transmission due to changes in actuator and transmission ratio gave the vehicle the extra lift, enabling it to run on solar power alone. It stated that the next step would be to control the RoboBee remotely.

The article then stated that these technologies could be implemented in the development of other devices and are not just limited to the RoboBee.

Currently, the RoboBee requires the intensity of 3 earth suns to function, as demonstrated by simulation in a lab with halogen lights. As this experiment demonstrates, developing an alternative approach to power the RoboBee is essential.

One reason an alternative approach to power the RoboBee instead of solar power is essential is how unreliable solar power can be. Because of the unpredictability of weather, the actual output of solar power energy is much lower than the potential output. Energy storage could alleviate some of the solar power’s reliance on a backup power source, but current energy storage technology is still developing and not yet advanced. Therefore, solar power is almost never the sole power source and usually backed up by other more reliable sources in various forms. With weight being such an important factor for the RoboBee, all these backup power sources would surely be undesired.

Another reason an alternative approach to power the RoboBee instead of solar power is essential is how inefficient solar panels are. This is the reason why the RoboBee requires the intensity of three suns to function. Currently, the most efficient panel type made of the highest-grade silicon is the monocrystalline silicon panel. However, it only coverts about one fifth the amount of sunlight absorbed. One countermeasure against this inefficiency is the concentrated solar power system. This method makes use of an array of mirror to concentrate sunlight into a thermal receiver, which then converts thermal energy into electrical energy using a turbine generator. This countermeasure would be impossible to implement into the RoboBee, proving once again solar power is inadequate.


Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science. (2019, June 26). The RoboBee Flies Solo: Cutting the power cord for the first time untethered flight. ScienceDaily. Retrieved from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190626133712.htm

Jordan Lofthouse, Randy T Simmons, Ryan M. Yonk (2017). RELIABILITY OF RENEWABLE ENERGY: SOLAR. Retrieved from https://www.usu.edu/ipe/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Reliability-Solar-Full-Report.pdf

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