The simple idea of robot bees, robot insects in general, was published long long ago, as for example at or near the end of Isaac Asimov's "robot" stories, where the "three laws of robotics" were dispensed with for robots that simply implemented / emulated normal insect behavior thus had no need for the famous "three laws".

Did either of the two robot bee projects you mention require or infringe Walmart's patent, or was it merely about some particular technical methodology or mechanics for potential use in such bees and the two projects mentioned used different ways of implementing robot bees thus the patent does not touch / cover them?