The Technology Transfer Office has long strived to apply the results of BC research and development in practice. In addition to licensing agreements and the commercialization of research results, our activities also include the support of socially relevant topics by fulfilling the ideas of corporate social responsibility. BC started such cooperation with E.ON Česká republika, s.r.o. two years ago, which provided BC with support for the acquisition of photovoltaics for the smart hive project. The smart hive is developed in cooperation with the Department of Applied Informatics at the University of South Bohemia in Č. Budějovice and aims in particular to contribute to improving the health status of bees, especially by early signaling of the course of key life parameters in the hive, monitoring the manifestations of colony activity in the area of the entrance to the hive and refining the detection of the parasite - Varroa destructor mite - on the hive mat.
The new bee tracking system uses the latest knowledge in the field of artificial intelligence, neural networks, deep learning and IoT technologies. Thanks to this, it is possible to automatically monitor variables such as the temperature and humidity in the hive, the temperature in a tuft of bees, the temperature, humidity and barometric pressure outside the hive, bee sounds, hive weight, CO2 concentration in the hive, as well as the visual monitoring of the hives by the camera system - the frequency of bees entering and leaving the hives. Beekeepers can have an overview not only of the condition of the colony, the conditions inside the hive and the surrounding area, but they can also monitor their colonies, for example, using GPS in case of hive theft or using a scale to monitor the growth, to detect honey theft, swarming, etc.
The smart hive is still being modified, but it is already collecting valuable data and is ready to help not only beekeepers, but also the popularization of science. On 6 September 2021, the first presentation of the Smart Hive took place in the BC Experimental Apiary with the participation of representatives of E.ON, thanks to whose support the Smart Hive is one step more autonomous and will be presented to the general public during the Festival of Science 2021, which starts on Wednesday 8 September. This confirms that the basis for the successful transfer of knowledge and skills into practice is regular communication not only between researchers and academic institutions, but especially communication with partners from the application sphere and, last but not least, popularization of research and development results to the public.
