Design and Development of a Robotic Bee for the Analysis of Honeybee Dance Communication

We have designed a robotic honeybee to mimic the bee dance communication system. To achieve this goal, a tracking system has been developed to extract real bee dance trajectories recorded with high-speed video cameras. The results have been analysed to find the essential properties required for the...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: T. Landgraf, H. Moballegh, R. Rojas
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Hindawi Limited 2008-01-01
Series:Applied Bionics and Biomechanics
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/11762320802617552
Description
Summary:We have designed a robotic honeybee to mimic the bee dance communication system. To achieve this goal, a tracking system has been developed to extract real bee dance trajectories recorded with high-speed video cameras. The results have been analysed to find the essential properties required for the prototype robot. Putative signals in the dance communication have been identified from the literature. Several prototypes were built with successive addition of more features or improvement of existing components. Prototypes were tested in a populated beehive results were documented using high-speed camera recordings. A substantial innovation is a visual feedback system that helps the robot to minimise collisions with other bees.
ISSN:1176-2322
1754-2103