University Events

Description: Topic: Honeybee Hive Health Monitoring via Integrated Environmental Sensors

Location: Science & Engineering Building (SENG), Room 212

Zoom Conference Link: https://umassd.zoom.us/j/94389434410
Meeting ID: 943 8943 4410
Passcode: 693805

Abstract:
Honeybees are dying at an alarming rate for reasons not yet fully understood, which poses a threat to our ecosystem and food supply. Better hive health monitoring systems are vital for beekeepers to gain early awareness of potential issues with the health of their hives, so that preventative actions can be taken earlier.

Following a survey of current literature on optimal methods for automatically assessing honeybee hive health, an electronic monitoring system was designed, built, and installed in a live honeybee hive to gather sensor data. The monitoring system features high-fidelity environmental sensing of audio and temperature, runs on solar power, and locally stores sensor data, then wirelessly transmits it to an internet-connected base station. Remote monitoring in real-time is enabled by securely connecting to the base station over the internet. The monitoring system's sensor frames were designed to easily retrofit an existing Langstroth hive with minimally invasive environmental sensors. Custom-designed printed circuit boards were used throughout the monitoring system and sensor frames to collect and transmit data.

To visualize how bees are distributed throughout the hive interior over time, an interactive three-dimensional heat map web-application was created, which uses gathered temperature data. By applying methods from the literature, temperature readings and audio recordings from the monitoring system were analyzed for specific characteristics, such as temperature trends indicative of declining hive health, or increased audio amplitude within a specific frequency range over a particular period to predict a potential swarming event.

Advisor(s): Dr. Paul J. Fortier, Professor, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, UMASS Dartmouth

Committee Members: Dr. David P. Rancour, Associate Professor, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, UMASS Dartmouth; Dr. Yong K. Kim, Chancellor Professor, Department of Bioengineering, UMASS Dartmouth

Note: All ECE Graduate Students are ENCOURAGED to attend.
All interested parties are invited to attend. Open to the public.

*For further information, please contact Dr. Paul J. Fortier via email at pfortier@umassd.edu