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🧿 Robotic Beehive

We are developing a robotic vertical beehive inspection platform, which is

  • capable of lifting multiple hive sections to faster reach the nest
  • take photos of the beehive frames with built-in cameras - manual hive frame lifting is needed
  • uploading inspection result to the web app
  • transported on wheels, you can use it to inspect different hives

status: TRL 2

Overview​

Problem focus​

Out of all beekeeping issues, this product is helping with these:

Target clients​

A robotic inspection platform will cost (>2000 EUR) and its main value is in digitalization and organization of the apiary state. It might be too cumbersome for 👨🏻‍🚒 Industrial beekeepers or 🧑🏻‍🌾 Farmers and too hard for 👨🏻 Potential new beekeepers. But it does look viable for:

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

Features​

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

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.