A robotic hive that can protect bees during the winter? Let’s find out together what the new study published in the prestigious journal tells us Science Robotics.
A new research conducted by the Polytechnic University of Lausanne has been published which would pave the way for a real alliance between robots and animals. We are talking about a hive capable of monitoring life in bee colonies and to interact with them. Dr. Rafael Barmak and colleagues have in fact developed a robotic hive capable of interacting thermally with the colonies of “Apis mellifera carnica“.
Whereas by now bees are dying at a staggering rate and few seem to really care, it is a new tool that would allow these small but fundamental insects to survive the cold by maintaining a constant temperature thresholdso that they remain active. In a nutshell, they aggregate in a structure called “glomere” within which an optimal climate is created for the performance of vital functions.
“The robotic hive was used to observe the colony, collecting thermal profiles of the bee cluster for long periods, allowing bio-hybrid interaction with the bees, exercising a minimally invasive influence on architecture and on the structure of the nest” said Dr. Donato Romano, directly from the BioRobotics Institute of the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa.
Furthermore, the invention could also prove useful for guaranteeing support to bee colonies affected by cold winter temperatures. In fact, during the winter period, when temperatures drop drastically, the weakened bees can also fall into a coma which can lead to their death.
Precisely for these reasons, once the various systems that allow you to control the temperature have been activated, the robotic hive made it possible to prevent the problem. Therefore considering that just like human beings, too bees feel emotionsit is clear that the protection and safeguarding of their colonies is fundamental.