Design Summary Analysis 2

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 stated that it has developed an extremely lightweight circuit and has 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 also stated that these technologies could be integrated into the development of other devices and are not limited to the RoboBee.

According to the Burrows(2019), the solar-powered RoboBee currently requires the strength of 3 earth suns to work, as demonstrated by simulation with halogen lights in a laboratory. This experiment clearly demonstrates the limits of solar power, therefore 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. According to Lofthouse, Simmons, M. Yonk(2015), due to 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 often 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. According to Lofthouse, Simmons, M. Yonk(2015), photovoltaic has the least capacity factor of any major energy source. This is the reason why the RoboBee requires the intensity of three suns to function. Currently, the most efficient panel type fabricated from the highest-grade silicon is the monocrystalline silicon panel. It is however just able to covert 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 mirrors 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 due to its size, proving once again solar power is inadequate.

In fact, back in 2018 at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Brisbane, Australia, a similar product was unveiled. It was called the RoboFly and is also powered by solar panels. The key difference was the power delivery. According to Evan Ackerman(2018), a laser was aimed at the photovoltaic cell to power the RoboFly. Therefore to sustain flight, a laser has to continuously track the movement of the robot, making outdoor flight inconceivable, proving once again the limits of solar power.

To conclude, the limitations of solar power is holding the RoboBee back and with no foreseeable breakthrough for solar energy in the near future, an alternative power source is necessary. 


Evan Ackerman (2018, May). Laser-Powered Robot Insect Achieves Lift-Off. Retrieved from https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-hardware/laser-powered-robot-insect-achieves-lift-off

Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science. (2019, June). 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 (2015, November). 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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