Design Summary Analysis Final

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. 

According to the Burrows (2019), the solar-powered RoboBee currently requires the strength of three earth suns to work, as demonstrated by simulation with halogen lights in a laboratory. This experiment clearly demonstrates the limits of solar power for the RoboBee and why developing an alternative approach to power the RoboBee is essential.

The first 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.

The second reason an alternative approach to power the RoboBee instead of solar power is essential is how inefficient solar panels are. According to Lofthouse, Simmons, 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. Also, 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 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 are evident as shown above and it is holding the RoboBee back. With no foreseeable breakthrough for solar energy in the near future, an alternative power source is necessary. One possible alternative would be a lithium-sulfur battery. According to Richardson (2020), lithium-sulfur batteries hitting the shelves in the near future will have twice the amount of energy of lithium-ion batteries, increasing power to weight ratio. Lithium-sulfur battery may be a relatively new technology but it has boundless potential and possibility, making it one of the best candidates to power the RoboBee.









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

Lofthouse, Simmons, 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

Richardson (2020, February). Lithium-Sulfur Batteries Could Be Cheaper & More Energy Dense from https://cleantechnica.com/2020/02/11/lithium-sulfur-batteries-could-be-cheaper-more-energy-dense/

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