Bee-inspired drone navigation could change how tiny robots move through greenhouses, warehouses and disaster zones. By pairing rough motion estimates with learned visual memories, Bee-Nav guides drones home over long distances, opening a practical path for smaller, cheaper autonomous flight. A drone buzzes through a greenhouse, weaving between rows of tomatoes. Another inspects a warehouse ceiling for damage. A third searches a disaster site where GPS signals fail. These scenes sound futuristic, yet one major obstacle has slowed them down for years: navigation. Small drones struggle to find their way without carrying heavy computers and large batteries. Most modern navigation systems rely on detailed maps and powerful processors, making lightweight robots expensive and energy-hungry. Now, scientists led by Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands may have found a simpler answer by copying one of nature’s best navigators: the honeybee. Their new system, called Bee-Nav, allows tiny drones to travel hundreds of meters and still return home using a neural memory as small as 42 kilobytes. The findings were published in the journal Nature. Illustration …