System design for inferring colony-level pollination activity through miniature bee-mounted sensors
Abstract In digital agriculture, large-scale data acquisition and analysis can improve farm management by allowing growers to constantly monitor the state of a field. Deploying large autonomous robot teams to navigate and monitor cluttered environments, however, is difficult and costly. Here, we pre...
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2021-02-01
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82537-1 |
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doaj-37aeb7b418dc4529a078e2a194dbafc02021-02-21T12:30:57ZengNature Publishing GroupScientific Reports2045-23222021-02-0111111210.1038/s41598-021-82537-1System design for inferring colony-level pollination activity through miniature bee-mounted sensorsHaron M. Abdel-Raziq0Daniel M. Palmer1Phoebe A. Koenig2Alyosha C. Molnar3Kirstin H. Petersen4Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell UniversityDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell UniversityDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell UniversityDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell UniversityDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell UniversityAbstract In digital agriculture, large-scale data acquisition and analysis can improve farm management by allowing growers to constantly monitor the state of a field. Deploying large autonomous robot teams to navigate and monitor cluttered environments, however, is difficult and costly. Here, we present methods that would allow us to leverage managed colonies of honey bees equipped with miniature flight recorders to monitor orchard pollination activity. Tracking honey bee flights can inform estimates of crop pollination, allowing growers to improve yield and resource allocation. Honey bees are adept at maneuvering complex environments and collectively pool information about nectar and pollen sources through thousands of daily flights. Additionally, colonies are present in orchards before and during bloom for many crops, as growers often rent hives to ensure successful pollination. We characterize existing Angle-Sensitive Pixels (ASPs) for use in flight recorders and calculate memory and resolution trade-offs. We further integrate ASP data into a colony foraging simulator and show how large numbers of flights refine system accuracy, using methods from robotic mapping literature. Our results indicate promising potential for such agricultural monitoring, where we leverage the superiority of social insects to sense the physical world, while providing data acquisition on par with explicitly engineered systems.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82537-1 |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Haron M. Abdel-Raziq Daniel M. Palmer Phoebe A. Koenig Alyosha C. Molnar Kirstin H. Petersen |
spellingShingle |
Haron M. Abdel-Raziq Daniel M. Palmer Phoebe A. Koenig Alyosha C. Molnar Kirstin H. Petersen System design for inferring colony-level pollination activity through miniature bee-mounted sensors Scientific Reports |
author_facet |
Haron M. Abdel-Raziq Daniel M. Palmer Phoebe A. Koenig Alyosha C. Molnar Kirstin H. Petersen |
author_sort |
Haron M. Abdel-Raziq |
title |
System design for inferring colony-level pollination activity through miniature bee-mounted sensors |
title_short |
System design for inferring colony-level pollination activity through miniature bee-mounted sensors |
title_full |
System design for inferring colony-level pollination activity through miniature bee-mounted sensors |
title_fullStr |
System design for inferring colony-level pollination activity through miniature bee-mounted sensors |
title_full_unstemmed |
System design for inferring colony-level pollination activity through miniature bee-mounted sensors |
title_sort |
system design for inferring colony-level pollination activity through miniature bee-mounted sensors |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
series |
Scientific Reports |
issn |
2045-2322 |
publishDate |
2021-02-01 |
description |
Abstract In digital agriculture, large-scale data acquisition and analysis can improve farm management by allowing growers to constantly monitor the state of a field. Deploying large autonomous robot teams to navigate and monitor cluttered environments, however, is difficult and costly. Here, we present methods that would allow us to leverage managed colonies of honey bees equipped with miniature flight recorders to monitor orchard pollination activity. Tracking honey bee flights can inform estimates of crop pollination, allowing growers to improve yield and resource allocation. Honey bees are adept at maneuvering complex environments and collectively pool information about nectar and pollen sources through thousands of daily flights. Additionally, colonies are present in orchards before and during bloom for many crops, as growers often rent hives to ensure successful pollination. We characterize existing Angle-Sensitive Pixels (ASPs) for use in flight recorders and calculate memory and resolution trade-offs. We further integrate ASP data into a colony foraging simulator and show how large numbers of flights refine system accuracy, using methods from robotic mapping literature. Our results indicate promising potential for such agricultural monitoring, where we leverage the superiority of social insects to sense the physical world, while providing data acquisition on par with explicitly engineered systems. |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82537-1 |
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