Robotic system affords hidden window into collective bee habits

The robotic system is proven in an experimental hive © Artificial Life Lab/U. of Graz/Hiveopolis

By Celia Luterbacher

Honeybees are famously finicky in terms of being studied. Research devices and situations and even unfamiliar smells can disrupt a colony’s habits. Now, a joint analysis staff from the Mobile Robotic Systems Group in EPFL’s School of Engineering and School of Computer and Communication Sciences and the Hiveopolis mission at Austria’s University of Graz have developed a robotic system that may be unobtrusively constructed into the body of a regular honeybee hive.

Composed of an array of thermal sensors and actuators, the system measures and modulates honeybee habits by way of localized temperature variations.

“Many rules of bee society – from collective and individual interactions to raising a healthy brood – are regulated by temperature, so we leveraged that for this study,” explains EPFL PhD pupil Rafael Barmak, first creator on a paper on the system not too long ago printed in Science Robotics. “The thermal sensors create a snapshot of the bees’ collective behavior, while the actuators allow us to influence their movement by modulating thermal fields.”

“Previous studies on the thermal behavior of honeybees in winter have relied on observing the bees or manipulating the outside temperature,” provides Martin Stefanec of the University of Graz. “Our robotic system enables us to change the temperature from within the cluster, emulating the heating behavior of core bees there, and allowing us to study how the winter cluster actively regulates its temperature.”

A ‘biohybrid superorganism’ to mitigate colony collapse

Bee colonies are difficult to check in winter since they’re delicate to chilly, and opening their hives dangers harming them along with influencing their habits. But because of the researchers’ biocompatible robotic system, they have been in a position to examine three experimental hives, positioned on the Artificial Life Lab on the University of Graz, throughout winter and to manage them remotely from EPFL. Inside the gadget, a central processor coordinated the sensors, despatched instructions to the actuators, and transmitted knowledge to the scientists, demonstrating that the system could possibly be used to check bees with no intrusion – and even cameras – required.

Mobile Robotic Systems Group head Francesco Mondada explains that some of the vital facets of the system – which he calls a ‘biohybrid superorganism’ for its mixture of robotics with a colony of people performing as a residing entity – is its capability to concurrently observe and affect bee habits.

“By gathering data on the bees’ position and creating warmer areas in the hive, we were able to encourage them to move around in ways they would never normally do in nature during the winter, when they tend to huddle together to conserve energy. This gives us the possibility to act on behalf of a colony, for example by directing it toward a food source, or discouraging it from dividing into too-small groups, which can threaten its survival.”

The robotic system is proven in an experimental hive © MOBOTS / EPFL / Hiveopolis

The scientists have been in a position to extend the survival of a colony following the demise of its queen by distributing warmth vitality by way of the actuators. The system’s capability to mitigate colony collapse may have implications for bee survivability, which has change into a rising environmental and meals safety concern because the pollinators’ world populations have declined.

Never-before-seen behaviors

In addition to its potential to assist colonies, the system has make clear honeybee behaviors which have by no means been noticed, opening new avenues in organic analysis.

“The local thermal stimuli produced by our system revealed previously unreported dynamics that are generating exciting new questions and hypotheses,” says EPFL postdoctoral researcher and corresponding creator Rob Mills. “For example, currently, no model can explain why we were able to encourage the bees to cross some cold temperature ‘valleys’ within the hive.”

The researchers now plan to make use of the system to check bees in summertime, which is a vital interval for elevating younger. In parallel, the Mobile Robotic Systems Group is exploring techniques utilizing vibrational pathways to work together with honeybees.

“The biological acceptance aspect of this work is critical: the fact that the bees accepted the integration of electronics into the hive gives our device great potential for different scientific or agricultural applications,” says Mondada.

This work was supported by the EU H2020 FET mission HIVEOPOLIS (no. 824069), coordinated by Thomas Schmickl, and by the Field of Excellence COLIBRI (Complexity of Life in fundamental Research and Innovation) on the University of Graz.