17.04.2015 change 17.04.2015

The Maja project will help beekeepers and researchers

Photo: Fotolia Photo: Fotolia

The system, which will notify a beekeeper or investigator via text message that something disturbing is happening in the hive, has been developed by students from the AGH University of Science and Technology. The device will monitor and automatically analyse data including the hive weight, the temperature and humidity inside, and the sounds of bees.

The team of students from the Electronics Science Club at AGH in the Project Maja develops wireless monitoring system for apiaries. It will be a network of sensors that will transmit collected data to the Internet. The system can be installed on any hive.

The project author and coordinator Wojciech Sojka, a student of electrical engineering at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Automatics, Computer Science and Biomedical Engineering AGH said in an interview with PAP that one component of the device will be a scale. It will allow to remotely check if the bees have not escaped from the hive and whether honey is produced regularly in the apiary. The device will also be equipped with a motion sensor that will detect animals and unauthorized persons near the hive, and will alert, for example, if the hive topples. The device also includes humidity and temperature sensors. "Bees are very sensitive to temperature changes and ensure adequate temperature - for example when it is too hot, they forcing air circulation in the hive. If the temperature changes rapidly, it may be a sign that something is wrong with the bees" - described Sojka. The system can also analyse the sounds coming from the hive to detect when the bees are disturbed.

The most important data will be transmitted wirelessly from the hive to the network and automatically analysed. If they suggest that the insect family may be in danger, the beekeeper will get the notification via text message. In addition, the apiary caretaker can review the data collected by the system online, for example to analyse, in which areas and at what time the amount of honey increases in the hives, and in which hives the bees do not feel well. This will allow the beekeeper to optimise his work and provide bees with the best conditions.

However, the invention’s applications are not limited to only the commercial ones. The main objective of the Maja Project is to create fully automatic bee colony monitoring system, which could help find an answer to how to better protect bees from extinction. Through a network of devices, scientists would regularly receive data on bee populations from different parts of the country. This would allow to continuously monitor the occurrence of diseases, determine areas where bees are dying out and try to identify the cause of the impaired functioning of the population. The system would also - according to Wojciech Sojka - allow for a closer cooperation between beekeepers and veterinary services.

So far, with AGH Rector’s Grant 2014, a demo version of the device has been built. Late last year, the project won the top prize in the international STMicroelectronics competition of interesting ideas of the Internet of things. Since recently the Project Maja also acts as a start-up, and according to its creator, local scientists and beekeepers will receive the first test equipment in April. The collected data will be used in further research into the possibilities of beehives monitoring.

Project coordinator assured that the system would be resistant to external factors, and the device could operate on single battery for a long time - it would be necessary to replace the battery only once or twice a year.

PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland, Ludwika Tomala

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