Bencsik Martin, Le Conte Yves, Reyes Maritza, Pioz Maryline, Whittaker David, Crauser Didier, Simon Delso Noa, Newton Michael I
Nottingham Trent University, NTU, School of Science and Technology, Clifton Lane, Nottingham, NG11 8NS, United Kingdom.
Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, INRA, UR 406 Abeilles et Environnement, Domaine Saint-Paul, CS 40509, 84914, Avignon, France.
PLoS One. 2015 Nov 18;10(11):e0141926. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0141926. eCollection 2015.
Insect pollination is of great importance to crop production worldwide and honey bees are amongst its chief facilitators. Because of the decline of managed colonies, the use of sensor technology is growing in popularity and it is of interest to develop new methods which can more accurately and less invasively assess honey bee colony status. Our approach is to use accelerometers to measure vibrations in order to provide information on colony activity and development. The accelerometers provide amplitude and frequency information which is recorded every three minutes and analysed for night time only. Vibrational data were validated by comparison to visual inspection data, particularly the brood development. We show a strong correlation between vibrational amplitude data and the brood cycle in the vicinity of the sensor. We have further explored the minimum data that is required, when frequency information is also included, to accurately predict the current point in the brood cycle. Such a technique should enable beekeepers to reduce the frequency with which visual inspections are required, reducing the stress this places on the colony and saving the beekeeper time.
昆虫授粉对全球农作物生产至关重要，而蜜蜂是主要的授粉者之一。由于管理蜂群数量的减少，传感器技术的应用越来越普遍，开发能够更准确、侵入性更小地评估蜜蜂蜂群状态的新方法备受关注。我们的方法是使用加速度计来测量振动，以便提供有关蜂群活动和发育的信息。加速度计提供振幅和频率信息，每三分钟记录一次，且仅对夜间数据进行分析。通过与目视检查数据（特别是育雏发育情况）进行比较，对振动数据进行了验证。我们展示了传感器附近振动幅度数据与育雏周期之间的强相关性。当还包括频率信息时，我们进一步探索了准确预测育雏周期当前阶段所需的最少数据量。这样一种技术应能使养蜂人减少所需的目视检查频率，减轻这对蜂群造成的压力，并为养蜂人节省时间。
