That is super-cool... but I can't help but be reminded of an episode of Black Mirror in which this concept ended up going very poorly... At least that's just a TV show, right? ;-)

Haha yeah, it reminded me of that too.

Yeah this falls under the "just because we can doesn't mean we should" category for me :P

Well, I can certainly see this as not just being a "because we can" type of situation... Given the concerns over bee colony collapse, there is a real potential problem here that this could solve. Granted, I don't think we're at the level that it is a serious need yet (apparently the bees are making a comeback), at least someone is working on a possible solution in case.

I also wonder if this project could have been started when things were looking bad for honeybees, and the project just took long enough that now it seems like it's not really needed...

If we were ever in a situation where an intervention like this would be necessary then we'd be screwed already. Mankind can create many wonderful things but I believe that its a dangerous mindset to think that we can engineer our way out of the trouble we get into ecologically. The answer is not always more clever technology but a fundamental shift in the way we interact with natural systems. For example we could decrease our use of pesticides which have been harming bee populations.

I believe that its a dangerous mindset to think that we can engineer our way out of the trouble we get into ecologically

Solid point. There can certainly be lot of hubris in engineering, and the "robot bee" approach sure sounds like a major violation of finding the simplest solution... (But then again, who knows? Maybe we're at the point where making a robot bee is easier than going up against Monsanto?)

Bees were listed on the endangered species list in January.  That is scary.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/u-s-lists-a-bumble-bee-species-as-endangered-for-first-time/