Robotic system gives hidden window into collective bee habits

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

By Celia Luterbacher

Honeybees are famously finicky in relation to being studied. Analysis devices and situations and even unfamiliar smells can disrupt a colony’s habits. Now, a joint analysis crew from the Cell Robotic Techniques Group in EPFL’s College of Engineering and College of Pc and Communication Sciences and the Hiveopolis undertaking at Austria’s College of Graz have developed a robotic system that may be unobtrusively constructed into the body of a typical honeybee hive.

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

“Many guidelines of bee society – from collective and particular person interactions to elevating a wholesome brood – are regulated by temperature, so we leveraged that for this examine,” explains EPFL PhD scholar Rafael Barmak, first writer on a paper on the system not too long ago printed in Science Robotics. “The thermal sensors create a snapshot of the bees’ collective habits, whereas the actuators permit us to affect their motion by modulating thermal fields.”

“Earlier research on the thermal habits of honeybees in winter have relied on observing the bees or manipulating the skin temperature,” provides Martin Stefanec of the College of Graz. “Our robotic system allows us to vary the temperature from inside the cluster, emulating the heating habits of core bees there, and permitting us to check 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. However due to the researchers’ biocompatible robotic system, they have been in a position to examine three experimental hives, situated on the Synthetic Life Lab on the College of Graz, throughout winter and to manage them remotely from EPFL. Contained in the system, a central processor coordinated the sensors, despatched instructions to the actuators, and transmitted knowledge to the scientists, demonstrating that the system may very well be used to check bees with no intrusion – and even cameras – required.

Cell Robotic Techniques Group head Francesco Mondada explains that one of the vital elements of the system – which he calls a ‘biohybrid superorganism’ for its mixture of robotics with a colony of people appearing as a residing entity – is its skill to concurrently observe and affect bee habits.

“By gathering knowledge on the bees’ place and creating hotter areas within the hive, we have been in a position to encourage them to maneuver round in methods they might by no means usually do in nature throughout the winter, after they are inclined to huddle collectively to preserve power. This provides us the chance to behave on behalf of a colony, for instance by directing it towards a meals supply, or discouraging it from dividing into too-small teams, which might threaten its survival.”

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

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

By no means-before-seen behaviors

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

“The native thermal stimuli produced by our system revealed beforehand unreported dynamics which might be producing thrilling new questions and hypotheses,” says EPFL postdoctoral researcher and corresponding writer Rob Mills. “For instance, at present, no mannequin can clarify why we have been in a position to encourage the bees to cross some chilly temperature ‘valleys’ inside the hive.”

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

“The organic acceptance facet of this work is essential: the truth that the bees accepted the combination of electronics into the hive offers our system nice potential for various scientific or agricultural purposes,” says Mondada.

This work was supported by the EU H2020 FET undertaking HIVEOPOLIS (no. 824069), coordinated by Thomas Schmickl, and by the Discipline of Excellence COLIBRI (Complexity of Life in fundamental Analysis and Innovation) on the College of Graz.