The "RoboRoyale" project, supported by the European Union and carried out with the participation of researchers from Turkey, England, Czechia and Austria, aims to make bee colonies contribute more to the pollination of plants by supporting them with robotic technologies.
Playing an important role in the sustainability of agricultural production, honey bees carry pollen between flowers, ensuring the fertilization of plants and the formation of fruits and seeds. For this reason, the pollination activities of bees are important for the productivity of agricultural products and the continuity of natural ecosystems.
In the project involving METU Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Technologies Research and Application Center (ROMER) from Türkiye, studies are being carried out to increase pollination activities by enabling bees to perform more pollen collection flights.
In this context, it is aimed to encourage bees to fly to collect more pollen by limiting the amount of pollen they carry to the hive.
Queen bee will be followed moment by moment with artificial intelligence-supported cameras
Within the scope of the "RoboRoyale" project, it is also aimed to protect the health of the colony by supporting the nutrition of the queen bee with micro robotic systems developed based on the fact that pollen is an important protein source for bee colonies.
While the movements, feeding and egg-laying behaviors of the queen bee are monitored with artificial intelligence-supported cameras, some maintenance tasks undertaken by worker bees can also be carried out with the developed micro robotic systems.
With the successful completion of the project, it is envisaged that the health of bee colonies will be protected, more pollination will be achieved with fewer colonies, and thus efficiency in agricultural production will be increased.
"If we can direct bees to pollinate more, it will be possible to increase agricultural production."
Türkiye leg is Assoc. Prof. from METU ROMER. Dr. Assoc. Prof. in the research team of the project carried out under the supervision of Erol Şahin. Dr. Ali Emre Turgut, Assoc. Dr. Hande Alemdar and Dr. Babür Erdem is taking part.
In his statement to the AA correspondent, Erdem said that they wanted to increase agricultural production instead of increasing the production of bee products.
Emphasizing that bees play a very important role in agricultural production and that they provide pollination on plants, Erdem stated that they are instrumental in the formation of fruits by providing pollination from one flower to another.
Stating that agricultural production increased thus, Erdem said:
"If we can direct the bees to pollinate more, it will be possible to increase agricultural production, and for this we have robotic systems. First of all, we restrict the bees from bringing pollen at the hive entrances and giving the pollen inside. Bees use the pollen for the development of the larvae. When we restrict the pollen entry, the amount of pollen that will go to the larvae decreases. Therefore, the bees have to fly more and collect pollen. In this way, we actually provide more pollination with this manipulation. While doing this, we also keep the hive alive." "Pollen is the most important protein source for the hive. When we do this, we also restrict protein input."
"With micro robotic systems, we feed the queen bee with clean royal jelly and keep her welfare high."
Erdem also touched upon the importance of the queen bee in the hive.
Stating that all the bees in the hive are the "daughters" of the queen bee, Erdem said that the queen bee is fed with royal jelly, which requires high protein.
Stating that they are working to prevent the queen bee from being harmed by restricting protein entry into the hive in the project, Erdem said, "For this purpose, we feed the queen bee with clean royal jelly with micro robotic systems and keep the welfare of the queen bee high. In this way, we keep the colony alive, ensure that the colony does not disappear, ensure that the queen bee is healthy, and increase agricultural production thanks to the bees' more pollination." he said.
Explaining that they first recognized the queen bee with micro robotic systems and micro pump systems and placed small tags on it, Erdem said:
"At the same time, we calculate the posture of the queen bee using image processing methods, and then small robotic systems can come and small pump systems can direct towards the queen's mouth and feed the queen. Here we need not to disturb the worker bees. At the same time, we need to be able to feed the queen successfully. This is one of the important challenges for us. In our research, we aim to ensure that robots and other worker bees work in harmony within the colony."
Artificial intelligence is actively used in the project
Erdem said that their project was published in Science Robotics, a prestigious magazine.
Erdem emphasized that in the study, all operations such as monitoring the queen, looking at the honeycomb development, and counting the bees entering and exiting the hive were carried out thanks to artificial intelligence-based algorithms, and underlined that artificial intelligence was actively used in almost every step of the project.
Erdem said, "If we complete this project successfully, we will have achieved this; we will have the opportunity to increase agricultural productivity with fewer bee colonies without losing bees. In other words, we will increase agricultural efficiency. What does this mean? Therefore, we will perhaps have succeeded in achieving a decrease in food prices. The important thing will be to increase agricultural efficiency." he said.
