BeeSmart

Overview

Our team was tasked with proving the concept for BeeSmart, a sensor system that remotely monitors the productivity and health of beehives by measuring the weight of beehives and transmitting this data to a cloud that can be accessed remotely by the beekeepers. The company sponsor for this project is Highview Honey, a startup established by David Rice in 2013. Current methods of conducting beehive maintenance are labor-intensive, time consuming, and destructive to the bees’ productivity. The basis of the method that we will be using is a load cell comprised of four weight sensors, which the bee hives will rest on top of. Each load cell sensor is connected to a single hive node that will send weight data to the gateway, which will in turn send the data to the database over an LTE connection.

Objectives

Our team’s mission was to complete the gateway design and code, create 10 replications of the system, and test for weight measurement accuracy under various conditions to achieve the goal of proving the validity of the concept.

Approach

The deliverables were broken up into three main sections. The first was replication, which involved assembling the required 10 copies of the load cell and nodes. Identifying needed parts, organizing the procurement strategy, and gaining access to the required resources for assembly through Penn State Learning Factory were all part of these efforts. The second section was the gateway completion efforts, which encompassed selecting the proper hardware to finish the design and developing the necessary code to enable functionality. One main piece of hardware that the team added to the design was the LTE modem that enabled the remote communication of the data. Selecting an accompanying service provider that offered a far-reaching and cost-effective plan was also part of this design process. Since the gateway consumed more power, a new battery and recharging method was devised. However, the original design for this power system did not function properly, and an alternative was implemented instead. Efforts towards writing the code in this section encompassed integrating the LTE network, sending the data to the database, and visualizing it with Grafana, a third-party visualization tool. The final portion was testing, which involved creating and executing test procedures that explored the effect of factors such as temperature, geometric variation, battery life, and weight change on the system output. Through the alpha, beta, and final testing phases the team has developed a working theory on what affects the accuracy of the weight output. Specifically, it is believed that battery life and time needed for the load cell to settle are the leading contributors to shifts in the reading over time. However, more data collection in the future is necessary to draw a more complete conclusion.

Outcomes

The result is a cutting-edge system that allows for remote monitoring of beehives and a simple user interface for visualizing the data. Theoretically, more replications could be produced to accommodate any number of beehives and work anywhere with cellular service. Overall, the team was successful in meeting the majority of the requirements. Only two requirements were just partially met, and in both cases, this was due to hardware issues that were not discovered until the day of the field test. This means there are still some areas of improvement in terms of the manufacturing of the hardware components and overall data collection and analysis. The cost for all of the necessary parts, equipment, travel, and data storage was done with a total expenditure of $613.60. This is $114.40 less than the planned budget of $728.00. The team’s contributions to this project have helped the sponsor prove the system concept, file for patents, and benefit from the knowledge of Penn State students and university resources. Additionally, the final version of the BeeSmart system will help the customer cut labor costs, monitor the health of a hive through data trends, disturb the bees less often, and potentially double the profits per hive.