Insect-Size Quadcopters to Pollinate Crops

Researchers have developed tiny 1.7-inch diameter quadcopters that can transfer pollen to flower stigmata, thereby insuring the pollination of crops that feed the world. 

As noted in an online post  by The Economist magazine, the team developing the drone is led by Eijiro Miyako, of the National Institute of Advanced Indusrial Science and Technology, in Tsukuba, Japan. The prototype is just 1.6 inches wide, just over double the length of a honey bee worker, and carries paintbrush hairs that are just sticky enough to gather pollen but not too sticky to make the transfer to the stigmata.