Creating a swarm of robotic bees to either pollinate or spray pesticides

Longer description of your proposed project

Problems:

The overuse of pesticides causes $9 billion harm to the harm to environment & public health annually in the USA alone.

Current solution gaps:

Firstly, terrestrial robots have been here for a long time and are too generous in pesticide use.

Secondly, existing aerial robots have 3 main weaknesses:

Points of failure
low in search efficiency with high energy and costs
flight duration constraints. Bad combo with having low efficiency.

We propose using a swarm of terrestrial robots, with 3 main technical advantages:

Fault-tolerant
Parallel processing gives rise to efficient search processes
The design is replicable and scalable

Commitment level: My team has weekly meetings. I am willing to drop out to work on this robotics project and Sapientia.

Next steps:

Realistic simulations, with collision control, density gradient models, energy models, environment models, pest regeneration
Refine sensor accuracy, reduce Pesty’s size: Efficiency and agility
Failing systems and pesticide neutralization methods
2D testing
3D: creating a small robotic bee swarm for pollination purposes, solving the adjacent problem of declining natural pollinators and the insufficiency of human hand pollination (high time and cost)
Feedback and iterations!

Bio-inspired robotics is about using concepts from nature that may solve a problem in an engineering field and then enhancing or simplifying this mechanism. In 10 years, I see myself facilitating an ecosystem of bio-inspired robots (e.g. turtle robots, slothbots) collaborating on Earth. In the longer term, the ecosystem of bio-inspired robots could potentially search and easily retrieve dispersed resources across outer space for human flourishing.

Describe why you think you're qualified to work on this

My team currently has 4 students with robotics/STEM experience. Amina R is a prizewinner at the World Robot Olympiad; She built an AI-based bioreactor to regulate algae conditions and a Lego robot that produces biofuel from algae. She has founded multiple startups. Aknur was a STEM ambassador at FIRST Robotics. Amina T studied at the hardest STEM high school in Kazakhstan, with experience teaching aerodynamics & physics. Amina and Aknur lead the biggest organization for central asian women entrepreneurs in the bay area.

In high school, I assisted a University of Waterloo professor with writing control algorithms for a swarm of bristle bots. I was also part of a global youth accelerator called The Knowledge Society (TKS) where students trianed to solved real-world problems through month-long hackathons, consulting projects and technical focuses. Alums who devoted significant time and resources to this process are now conducting research at Broad Institute, Genomics research at Stanford, and raised $100M for their AI startup.

We all study at Minerva University. Minerva rethinks higher education from first principles with a cosmopolitan spirit. It has been ranked the #1 most innovative university by WURI for two consecutive years. Students are selected based on their past achievements and 6 challenges, mainly, including "giftedness" (I don't like people's ego associated with this term :D), situational critical thinking/problem-solving as well as creativity. Minerva admission shows a level of generalist skills such as collaboration, project management competencies appropriate for running our project.

We don't claim to know everything. I've been talking to dozens of robotics engineers and entrepreneurs each week for feedback, filling in knowledge gaps and learning quickly. Our team believes that this project allows us to leave an impact to affect millions while build career capital for more impactful research or entrepreneurial opportunities. We have the appropriate soft and technical skills to get started.

Sample endorsements

Aaron, founder of Unbound Science: "[Yoyo] is the smartest person in the room. Give her 10 years and she will be running this place."

Rationalist-adjacents from Manifold:

"That required updating your priors a lot, which I'm really impressed with."

"Your openness among the highest... I like [your type of] thinking, defining new social norms/protocols."

Other ways I can learn about you

https://inawe.substack.com/ <- My newsletter, the latest post includes a project update :)

https://exanova.mmm.page/ <- My past projects allowed me to explore several fields to be an interesting generalist. I am now going in-depth in two fields.

https://twitter.com/indiraschka <- my life updates

How much money do you need?

Customized prototype: $15 000. Improved sensors, actuators, and structured materials, access to paid design software, attending conferences to increase luck surface area, and consulting experts.

Full implementation: $30 000. High-quality components for both projects, enhanced computing power for intensive, realistic simulation and testing. Funds for the team to attend important industry workshops to get mentorship and learn new skills.

Comprehensive project with impact potential: $50 000. Best-in-class materials and tools, extensive software, regular expert consultation, and funds to present work at conferences and journals.

Launching several pilot projects: $100 000. R&D, tech and equipment, marketing, operations, regulatory compliance.

Links to any supporting documents or information

Recent proof of concept: https://twitter.com/michaelraspuzzi/status/1762175516508049455?s=20

Pitch deck: https://www.canva.com/design/DAF9ymRq1sA/9A3QfeZbD0kVpqA0IxXdlA/view

Minerva University: https://www.minerva.edu/

Team LinkedIn profiles:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aminarhe/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/a-aknur/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoyo-yuan/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amina-tushakova/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/qasim-murad-a297bb242/

Estimate your probability of succeeding if you get the amount of money you asked for

Definition: To demonstrate our robots can effectively pollinate flowers or spray pesticides, reducing costs and improving yield. The demonstration is successful at two pilot projects with farms or agricultural businesses and gather positive testimonials to build credibility. Given our team's previous experience and a humble aptitude for learning, I estimate > 75%