Bee-like drones that can be used for precision pollination in indoor farming are a bit of a hit in Singapore.
The company which has pioneered this rather crazy sounding innovation, Polybee, has just scooped the DBS Tech for Impact award worth S$50,000 to develop its bee-like technology
The two-year-old startup apparently enjoys a 90% success rate in harnessing small indoor drones to pollinate strawberries, tomatoes and other indoor food crops.
The company’s founder Siddharth Jadhav, claims that the drones which could potentially lay a huge rule in urban agriculture are “as good as bees, if not better”. And of course the drones don’t stop for water, food or sleep. In fact
Siddharth’s vision is to build a drone platform that can be used for all types of indoor farming when it comes to end-to-end processes such as pollination, which is currently done manually.
The issue for Siddharth and his team now is to ensure that the drones are flexible enough to work i the tightest spaces, while at the same time delivering high-quality food.