Technology to copy the bees

Bee's eye view could help robots, drones

The way humans see colour is heavily affected by the changing light around them, such as during a sunset or in the middle of the night, but bees see the same colour regardless.

The Melbourne-based team has studied how bees solve this problem, by using three special eyes on top of their head, in addition to two main eyes at the front.

"The three eyes point skyward, and they directly sample the colour of the light above us," Dr Adrian Dyer of RMIT University said.

"If it's a sunny day or a cloudy day, [those three eyes] can detect that.