Edete Precision Technologies for Agriculture’s artificial pollinator seeks to augment the labours of – and eventually replace – bees, according to a piece in Reuters.
“We see a crisis in 15 years where we don’t have enough insects in the world to actually do pollination and most of our vitamins and fruits are gone,” said Eylam Ran, CEO.
Its system mirrors the work of the honey bee, beginning with a mechanical harvest of pollen from flowers and ending with a targeted distribution using LIDAR sensors, the same technology used in some self-driving cars.
Edete has been working on a small-scale trial in several orchards in Israel and Australia, and has agreements to do the same in the United States. The company hopes to scale up and be ready to sell its products on the market in 2023.
