# 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
### IoT Beehive Security Systems  
Apiary infrastructure safety is the most important concern of the beekeeping industry. Beehive threats can be categorized into three categories: 1. Human theft and intervention, 2. Mammal attacks and 3. Wasp attacks, mites or swarm colony incidents such as queen death, extreme conditions, hunger or even thirst. Security is mainly reported in the literature as human theft or mammal attacks, while wasps, mites, and diseases are chemically confronted [10; 16]. The third category of incidents are also considered as condition security threats with no existing incident response system out in the market.  
Beekeeping installation safety from animal threats and human theft is an important thread in a migration beekeeping array. However, existing security systems do not offer complete and accurate incident awareness and response security solutions. The most commonly used systems for these types of threats are digital weight scales with GPRS or IEE802.15.4 transponders. These devices provide hive weight measurements and alarm systems if these measurement trends are out of scale [17; 18; 19; 20]. If the beehive's weight fluctuates above thresholds, beekeepers are notified via SMS, or email or even 3G/4G HTTP push notifications. The weight scale alarm system's significant drawback is the lack of accuracy, since it requires a flat horizontal base to function correctly, letting the device measurements to fluctuate even on wind blows.  
Bee-shop introduced a beehive surveillance camera kit [21], similar to EyeSon [22]. This system camera detects movements and captures photos or records video, sending them to the beekeeper's mobile phone. The system includes battery pack, SD memory card and requires 3G LTE connectivity. This solution the best safety awareness product presented in the market that can also respond to condition security threats. Nevertheless, it introduces significant energy consumption and fast battery depletion triggered by false motion detection alerts. For static and moving apiaries, electric fence installments around the beehives are also used. However, such solutions do not offer effective human theft protection functionality.  
APISAFE [23] and other similar market products such as Beebot [24], Hive-Tech [25] and HiveMind [17], and Arnia system [26], apart from hive conditions monitoring (temperature, humidity and environmental readings), recommend an alternative mechanism for keeping beehives safe, similar to the mechanism used by fleet management systems. That is, GPS anti-theft tracking devices. Beekeepers immediately get notified during the conduct of beehive theft incidents. The device provides continuous post-theft tracking by sending GPS coordinates over 3G or SMS (using 1-5 min periodic intervals of GPS location changes) for precise mapping of the thief's location. The battery autonomy of these systems is advertised as 2-3 months but has been experimentally measured by authors to operate successfully for no more than 25 days for a 10,000 mAh battery, for 1 min periodic GPS measurements transmission. Moreover, such systems are safe and harmless for the bees. GPS anti-theft tracking devices have been proven as not a good method for keeping beehives safe, due to their high complete deployment cost to a beehive array. GPS tracking devices are alternatively used in one or two hives per array and if spotted by thieves can be easily neutralized without an alert feedback. In case of animal attacks, GPS tracking devices do not offer significant protection, since animals only cup side or break the beehives, without moving them around. Furthermore, GPS transponders do not have the granularity to detect small movements (less than 6 m) and trigger alerts accordingly.