Robotic system offers hidden window into collective bee behavior

The robotic system is shown in an experimental hive © Artificial Life Lab / University of Graz / Hiveopolis Researchers have developed a temperature-modulating robotic system that can be seamlessly integrated into notoriously sensitive honeybee hives, providing both a never-before-seen view of honeybee behavior and a means to influence it. Honeybees are famously finicky when it comes to being studied. Research instruments and conditions and even unfamiliar smells can disrupt a colony's behavior. Now, a joint research team from the Mobile Robotic Systems Group in EPFL's School of Engineering and School of Computer and Communication Sciences and the Hiveopolis project at Austria's University of Graz have developed a robotic system that can be unobtrusively built into the frame of a standard honeybee hive. Composed of an array of thermal sensors and actuators, the system measures and modulates honeybee behavior through localized temperature variations. "Many rules of bee society - from collective and individual interactions to raising a healthy brood - are regulated by temperature, so we leveraged that for this study," explains EPFL PhD candidate Rafael Barmak, first author on a paper on the system recently published in Science Robotics. "The thermal sensors create a snapshot of the bees' collective behavior, while the actuators allow us to influence their movement by modulating thermal fields." "Previous studies on the thermal behavior of honeybees in winter have relied on observing the bees or manipulating the outside temperature," adds Martin Stefanec of the University of Graz.