Researchers Develop Innovative Way to Accommodate “Chilly” Bees

Attention, all honeybee lovers! Researchers have developed an incredible new system that could help save our fuzzy little friends from colony collapse. And the best part? It involves robots!

Yep, you heard that right. A team of scientists from the Mobile Robotic Systems Group in EPFL's School of Engineering and School of Computer and Communication Sciences, in collaboration with the Hiveopolis project at the Austria's University of Graz, have created a super cool robotic system that can be integrated into honeybee hives without disrupting the bees' behavior.

Robotic Beehive

The system is made up of a bunch of thermal sensors and actuators that measure and control honeybee behavior by manipulating localized temperatures. "Temperature is super important for bees," explains Rafael Barmak, a Ph.D. student at EPFL and the first author of the study.

"It regulates everything from their collective interactions to raising healthy brood."

Traditionally, studying honeybee behavior in winter has been tough, as they don't take kindly to cold weather or human interference.

But with this new system, the researchers were able to remotely control three experimental hives during the winter months without even opening them up.

Inside the device, a central processor coordinated the sensors and actuators, allowing the scientists to observe and influence bee behavior without disturbing the bees themselves.

One of the coolest things about this system, according to Francesco Mondada, head of the Mobile Robotic Systems Group, is its ability to simultaneously observe and influence bee behavior.

"By creating warmer areas in the hive, we were able to encourage the bees to move around in ways they wouldn't normally do in nature," he explains.

"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."

And that's not all. The scientists were even able to save a colony that had lost its queen by using the system to distribute heat energy via the actuators.

Surprising Honeybee Behaviors

The bee researchers discovered more than they expected with their innovative robotic system. They uncovered previously unseen honeybee behaviors that have never been observed before, which could open up new opportunities for biological research.

According to Rob Mills, a postdoctoral researcher at EPFL and the corresponding author on the study, the local thermal stimuli produced by the system resulted in new dynamics that are generating exciting new questions and hypotheses.

Mills added that currently, no model can explain why the bees were encouraged to cross some cold temperature 'valleys' within the hive.

So, what's next for this high-tech hive? The researchers plan to use the system to study honeybee behavior in the summertime, which is a crucial period for raising young.And the Mobile Robotic Systems Group is even exploring the use of vibrational pathways to interact with bees. The possibilities are endless!

The team's findings were published in Science Robotics.