Like a bumblebee flitting from flower to flower, a new insect-inspired flying robot created by engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, can hover, change trajectory and even hit small targets. Less than 1 centimeter in diameter, the device weighs only 21 milligrams, making it the world’s smallest wireless robot capable of controlled flight.

“Bees exhibit remarkable aeronautical abilities, such as navigation, hovering and pollination, that artificial flying robots of similar scale fail to do,” said Liwei Lin, Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley. “This flying robot can be wirelessly controlled to approach and hit a designated target, mimicking the mechanism of pollination as a bee collects nectar and flies away.”

Lin is the senior author of a new paper describing the robot that was published on Friday, March 28 in the journal Science Advances.