Beehive Monitoring System (AbejApp)

An IoT-based bee-hive monitoring system with a mobile app that allows the beekeeper to identify its status in real time

Beekeeping is a process that involves caring for honey bee colonies in artificial hives made by humans, in order to obtain a wide variety of products such as honey, wax, royal jelly, among others. The aforementioned activity can be divided into three main operational phases, firstly there is the hive population, which implies creating and populating new hives and also ensuring that those that are overcrowded are separated; then the intermediate phase, hive management, which includes inspection of the hives to determine their integrity and the health of the honey bees; and finally, there is the extraction, packaging and sale of products derived from beekeeping.  

When mentioning the second and third operational phase, the main problem to be dealt with by the proposed project is differentiated, since the inspection of the hives to determine their integrity and the health of the honey bees, in addition to checking the harvest status, require a series of of face-to-face supervision sessions by the beekeeper, which lead to the manual performance of several actions with their own risks included. Beekeeping has many risk factors such as heavy lifting, sprains, awkward positioning, bumps, visual fatigue, as well as some particular risks of the activity such as those resulting from bee stings and exposure to smokers. In addition, there must be special consideration in the resources invested in carrying out face-to-face supervision, since for each session it is necessary to invest in transportation, support personnel, equipment, and personal protection materials; additional, medicines in case of stings and accidents.  

The supervision carried out by the beekeeper is a very important process for the optimal development of honey bee hives; however, this activity requires extensive work and invested time, in addition to prolonged exposure to the aforementioned risk factors. By implementing a monitoring system based on IoT with a mobile application, which allows the beekeeper to know the status of the hives remotely, tiring work days are reduced, and the other risks mentioned. Also, it will be able to apply a timely response in case harmful variations are detected in the data that are monitored, thus avoiding losses in the bee population, the production of honey and other derivatives of the beekeeping production process.

This project proposes a monitoring system for honey bee hives based on IoT with a mobile application, which enables the beekeeper to reduce the tiring days of face-to-face inspection of the hives and other aforementioned problems, since it can monitor the state of the hives remotely via the internet, through the mobile application. In addition, they can apply the necessary corrective actions in case anomalies are detected in the data that are monitored, or go in a timely manner when determining the ideal harvest time, thus avoiding losses and optimizing production.  

The system has sensors that allow determining the state of the internal temperature and humidity variables of the brood chamber of a hive, in addition to its weight. Through a development card and GSM/GPRS technology, internet access is made possible and with it the data of the monitored variables is sent to a database hosted in the cloud; Additionally, a mobile application shows the beekeeper the status of the monitored variables, the historical record of the same and the generation of notifications in case it is determined that the weight of the hive reveals that the harvest is suitable or when the registered variables indicate harmful ranges for the bee population or the integrity of the hive. The system has energy autonomy, which favors its installation in apiaries without connection to the electrical network.

The population of beekeepers who have to expose themselves to the risks of beekeeping. In addition, the system allows establishing corrective actions when the health of the bee population is affected.

We are a multidisciplinary team, made up of two women who are passionate about their careers, offering solutions from two points of view: electronics and automation on the one hand, and the environmental field on the other. Aware that technology is a fundamental ally of the environment, and can offer optimal solutions.

Ecuadorian farmers use many pesticides on their crops, causing a decline in the population of bees that are mainly responsible for pollination and honey production, mainly affecting the Association of Beekeepers ASOPRAME that depend on this activity as their only livelihood for their family. In addition to the fact that the honey harvesting systems in Ecuador are rudimentary, which has caused low production and not controlling physical and environmental factors, the hive does not develop. Therefore, there has been an approach to ASOPRAME to socialize the mobile application that will allow the beekeeper to have real-time information about his hive of environmental conditions, weight and the date on which it should be harvested.

In Ecuador, the mechanisms for checking bee hives are handmade, without the intervention of any technological device. Added to this is the fact that in the rural region there is no internet access, only the GSM/GPRS network. With this, a mechanism based on this technology is proposed that allows the beekeeper to know in real time the status of their hives through an app.

We want to change the production system of Ecuadorian beekeepers since in the last decade they have had problems due to environmental conditions and the decline in ponlcation. These hive monitoring systems will help this sector to increase honey production and provide the better living conditions for bees since monitoring temperature, humidity and other physical factors prevents the bee population from dying or malformations in their larvae, helping their life span to be optimal.

The prototype is divided into three fundamental stages: data acquisition and delivery, information storage, and remote monitoring through the mobile application.

The first stage is made up of the data acquisition and delivery nodes; each one of they contain the elements required to analyze an apiary hive,including a development card to which a face-to-face display mechanism and the sensors responsible for measuring the values of the internal humidity and temperature variables of the brood chamber are connected, as well as sensors that determine the weight of the hive; In turn, the development card is connected to a GSM/GPRS wireless communication module, which allows connection to the Internet, making the system adaptable to IoT. This is considering that the locations where the hives are located do not have internet access via wired or WiFi technology, since they are located at a prudent distance from residential structures in rural areas. In addition, additional electronics are required, detailed in the following sections of the chapter. Finally, it is worth mentioning that the data collected is sent to the cloud.

The second stage includes the process of creating a database located in the cloud, which enables the reception and storage of data from the data acquisition and delivery nodes. The third stage corresponds to the remote monitoring of the variables of temperature, humidity and weight, and to the visualization of the information generated in the hives in a historical way through the mobile application. Records on the general state of the monitored variables are highlighted, and notifications when detecting that the hives can be harvested or when determining unwanted states in temperature or humidity, in order for the beekeeper to carry out the actions he deems appropriate. It is worth mentioning that the system is scalable, it can be expanded because data acquisition and delivery nodes can be implemented per hive to be monitored, establishing parameters both in the database and in the mobile application that make it possible to distinguish between the apiary and the hive. to which the processed information corresponds.

In Ecuador there are 1,760 beekeepers and 19,155 hives, which supply the national market with honey, pollen, propolis and wax. In the next year, we seek to address through talks or conferences to the headquarters of the association of beekeepers of Ecuador ASOPRAME, seeking a maximum reach.

The development cards and other elements on which the prototype is based are foreign, their import requires extra economic investment, which increases the price of the system.

We do not have external support from any organization in an economic way.