Our friends, the bees, have certain behaviors that are not healthy for the hive and are frightening for passers-by. A behavior, swarming, happens when a hive divides naturally with a group of bees following a new queen. This is a delicate time for the hive and can result in hungry bees and a dead queen. In other words, it is bad.
A beekeeper, Herbert M. Aumann, has a solution. Its system is a small vibrational and motion sensor that connects to the outside of a hive and transmits data on the behavior of bees. Beekeepers can divide hives before swarming begins and therefore, this system uses both sensors to detect the behavior before it falls.
“This sensor is connected to the outside of a hive, close to its entrance,” wrote Aumann in a study in IEEE Sensor Cards. “The external sensor is a 24 GHz continuous wave Doppler radar to monitor the activity of flying bees. The internal sensor is a piezoelectric transducer. Unlike a conventional microphone that captures the sounds that bees make, the piezoelectric transducer captures the incidental vibrations transmitted by the activity of the bees to the structure of the hive. “
The system then calculates the probability of a swarm and notifies the beekeeper so he can keep his small yellow and black charges safe. When bees get together before a swarming event, the sensor will sense the vibrations of the event, allowing the beekeeper to stop the activity, modifying the hive box enough to keep the bees in place. The sensor can also notify the beekeeper about theft events, when bees outside the hive take control of an entire hive and steal honey from the weakest bees.
“As I spent my career building radar systems to track small targets, I thought I could use a low-powered radar to observe bees from about three meters away. In fact, I could, ”said Aumann Spectrum. “Surprisingly, the signals that the radar picked up can be turned into an acoustic signal that sounds just like the signal you would hear next to the hive.”
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He built a startup, MaineBiosensorsto produce these electronics for beekeepers who want to keep their honey-producing friends healthy and happy. He’s not selling yet, but he hopes to have consumer models soon.