Spies and other intelligence services would love to get a hold of this: researchers from a renowned university are currently experimenting a way to help drones conserve energy on important flights – by making them stick to surfaces the way a bee does.

The robot bee is a project conducted by researchers from Harvard University. It is inspired by how bees and other insects land on surfaces and jump off to take flight, according to Mashable. With this technology, researchers believe that a drone can save a substantial amount of battery energy that it uses while merely hovering mid-air.

Like Us on Facebook

The research, published Thursday in the journal Science, showed that a drone will be able to save energy if it perches on some surface instead of maintaining flight. This can be done by using some material that would help the robot attach itself to a ceiling.

However, although there are a variety of options when it comes to that, chemical adhesives will prove to be problematic in the sense that it will hinder the lightweight robot from quickly taking off, the researchers said in a press release.

Considering this, lead researcher Moritz Alexander Graule and his colleagues scrapped that idea and instead used an electrostatic landing patch composed of a carbon-fiber base, copper electrodes, and a polyamide coating.

The patch is attached to the top of a drone the researchers made. The drone, a micro aerial vehicle (MAV) inspired by a bee, can stick itself to almost any surface including glass, wood and even real leaves using static electricity.

When charged, the patch produces static electricity that allows it to perch. It contains foam to help cushion the drone’s landing, and prevent it from merely bouncing off the ceiling as it attempts to land.

This new technology could prove useful in many situations, according to study co-author Robert Wood.

The drone can be used in“basically any situation where you want to have low cost and distributed sensing [that] would be too difficult or too dangerous for a human," Wood said.

The technology is still under development.

Tagsdrones, unmanned aerial vehicle, micro aerial vehicle, MAV, static electricity, Bees