Thinker Maker Space together with SuPerWorld & LEAR research groups of CYENS and EMME-CARE Center are jointly developing the BE-HIVE project. The project is driven by the common interest in the health of the bee population, that can be affected from many factors ranging from diseases to ambient temperature. By monitoring these factors, we can infer the most favourable conditions for the placement of hives and ensure that bees are as healthy as possible. CYENS Thinker Maker Space’s role is to design & build the smart beehives, source the electronics and develop the data acquisition system. After the prototypes are ready, the rest of the partners will analyse the collected data, extracting useful information about the beehive’s health.

Smart beehives and camera traps for bees and wasps (BE-HIVE), employs state-of-the-art sensing technologies (noise, temperature, humidity, optical and thermal cameras, camera traps) and computer vision technologies (deep learning, DL), as well as remote sensing (aerial photography from drones), monitoring bees’ behavior, population numbers and examining potential threats to their colonies (anomaly detection) in real-time. These data reveal the bee colony’s well-being, assisting beekepers to react fast in dangers, especially in relation to climate change. The nearby flora environment (at 5 kilometers ratius) is mapped via Remote Sensing, while DL allows to monitor the bees’ movement inside and in/out of the beehive, observing which type of pollen (and correspondingly, flowers) they carry/visit. Finally, camera traps will be strategically placed near significant sources of nearby flowers, to understand where and when bees travel to locate food, as well as whether this creates conflicts with nearby (wild) bees located in the broader area under study.

Special thanks to Nicolas Netien.