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🧿 Robotic Beehive

status: proof-of-concept, 5% complete

Bill of Materials (robot)

Why​

To solve Observability of bee colony, Physical labor, Challenging to become a new beekeeper, Ugly beehives problems, we’re building a single-colony robotic beehive, capable of automating inspections.

Vision and Positioning​

Single-colony robot costs too much (>2000 EUR) to be cost-efficient in large scales. Because of this, it is unlikely that Industrial beekeepers or Farmers (that have >20 beehives) will buy it. Instead, we are targeting people that value exterior Design to compliment their brand.

https://www.honeyflow.com/ as example of tehnological beehive, selling for 700 EUR

President Alar Karis harvesting honey from the Kadriorg Palace beehives. (Photo: Office of the President) An example of complimentary brand

Clients / Target audience​

How​

Main flow is to:

  • extract hive frame using Robotics
  • take photos from both sides
  • upload to the Web-app where it will be processed for health status

Functional requirements / features​

title
🍭 Automatic sugar syrup feeder
🎙️ 6-channel audio monitoring
🎮 Connecting robot to web-app UX
🎮 Client-side app with UI in manual override mode
📸 Full hive inspection
🐝 Bee specialization classification
🔊 Audio-interface to talk to bees
🐝 Bee nursing video analysis
📸 Real-time frame scanning
🔥 Hive heating
🚁 Ventilation control
🛑 Close mechanised hive entrance in case of robbing behaviour
🔌 Energy autonomy
🛑 Mechanically reduce hive entrance in case of high wind
🦾 Robotic frame reordering
🦾 Robotic insertion of new frames
🛑 Close mechanized hive entrance in case of hornet attack
🦾 Moveable hive bottom with varroa counting
🦾Robotic frame isolation & extraction
🧪 Automatic acid treatment against varroa

Non-functional requirements​

Extraction should happen without disturbing the bees, exposing them to elements or risking people around.

  • able to adjust to frame size and hive section size of customer’s choice (Langstroth, Farrar, National etc)
  • should not harm human operator - @Regulations and Compliance (ex. breaking hands)
  • not kill 🐝 bees [squashing with moving mechanisms, cause hypothermia, open to stealing or attacks via cracks]
  • be able to extract frame if bees glued it with wax
  • not 🔥 ignite from overheating, sun, electrical wiring etc. Beewax is highly flammable
  • move frame that is full of honey (4kg)
  • be repairable (modular, hot-swappable)
  • be offline-first. Provide data to beekeeper without internet or cloud account
  • provide manual on-site control over frame movement
  • fallback to safe mode on power loss

Prototype​

Consists of actuators that can move the frame in/out, GPU, cameras. Very early stage as we’re focusing on Web-app and Entrance Observer first.