# An Internet of Things-Based Low-Power Integrated Beekeeping Safety and Conditions Monitoring System
## 2 Related Work on Internet of Things (IoT) Beehive Incident Response and Management Systems
### New Beehive Cells Supporting the IBSMC Architecture  
Functionality of the IBSMC system requires the use of new beehive cells or modifications to existing ones. This paper proposes the design and implementation of new, automated beehives with built-in, low-power consumption control actuators, and built-in safety sensors. In particular, the temperature-humidity conditions affecting the bee colony can be divided into two distinct cases [6; 8; 9]:  
**Low temperatures:** below 10 \({}^{\circ}\)C. The precise lowest temperature value for the bee colony has not been determined in the literature as it varies considerably across region and breed. However, occurrences of group deaths have been reported for honeybees inhabiting the coldest parts of a hive. An apiculturist inspecting the hive can therefore be faced with groups of dead bees that had consumed all the honey from the cells on that side but were probably weakened and incapable to move to the other side of the hive, where honey may still be intact. Low temperatures combined with increased humidity are set to be the most destructive conditions that combine both high mobility and increased propolis content. **High temperatures:** In environmental temperatures of above 32 \({}^{\circ}\)C (up to 38 \({}^{\circ}\)C), it has been observed that honeybees are not significantly affected, since hives are positioned in shady places, near water deposits. Beekeepers would typically use 10-50 liters of open water containers for cooling the bees during the hot summer days. Apart from temperature, humidity also plays a critical factor for the water deposition required. Temperature measurements inside and outside the hive in conjunction with the application of appropriate data mining and prediction algorithms would enable the beekeeper to create a time-plan for water deposition. In addition, daytime sunshine and heat intensity monitoring can enable the beekeeper to place the hives in the most suitable and shady places (e.g., in a storage area) during the summer and move them to the brightest areas in the winter. Using automatic ventilation coupled with a heat-cool comfort sub-system to replace the static, manual hive thermoregulation operations would simplify apiculture practices and more efficiently handle the conditions inside the hive. Furthermore, it would protect the apiary from outbursts of severe environmental conditions that are difficult to circumvent in time by manual interventions. The proposed new beehive arrays are presented in Figure 2 and consist of the following condition monitoring sensors-actuators:  
1. Temperature and humidity sensors. Figure 2a shows the brood box of the proposed new beehives. Temperature and humidity sensors are placed internally in the plastic Langstroth brood box right surface (Figure 2a (2)). These sensors monitor the conditions inside the beehive. 2. A thermo-pad cells actuator unit for providing thermal comfort, if required. In the back side of the hive box, a 5V heated thermo-pad surface is placed, responsible for providing heat comfort inside the beehive (Figure 2a (5)). It is isolated from the bees with the use of a plastic PVC surface with 1 mm apertures so as to assist heat flow in the hive. The thermo-pad actuator unit is controlled by the beehive MCU (Figure 2c (3)) and it automatically powers up and resumes its last operational state at low temperatures (less than 0 \({}^{\circ}\)C). The specified maximum operational time interval for the subsystem is 3.2 h per day to avoid battery depletion, spread out uniformly (8 min per hour) using PWM control. The on interval of the subsystem can be set to 0, 2, 4 and 8 s per minute (disabled, low, middle, high). The operational state of the subsystem can also be remotely controlled by the central hive. Its current drain is at 750-1000 mA, thus giving a maximum daily energy consumption of 3 Ah and a minimum of 0.8 Ah depending on the operational state. 3. Peltier cells actuator unit provides cool comfort.