citizen science with homemade solar hive scales€¦ · simple, inexpensive microcomputer boards...
TRANSCRIPT
Andrew Wootton1, Emily Grace2
1The Beekeepers Club Inc and RMIT University, Melbourne Australia2Beeinventive Pty. Ltd. PO Box 8 Suffolk Park NSW 2481 Australia
Citizen science with homemade solar hive scales
Outline
• Original project objectives
• Description of technology
• How the project evolved to the Citizen Science study
• Lessons learned
• Future IoT communications protocols
Objective
Moja Mbili Autonomo SodaqONE
Arduino
Simple, inexpensive microcomputer boards used for DIY projects
An Arduino board is best used for simple repetitive tasks: opening and closing a garage door, reading the outside temperature and reporting it to Twitter, driving a simple robot.
Raspberry Pi is best used when you need a full-fledged computer: driving a more complicated robot, performing multiple tasks, doing intense calculations (as for Bitcoin or encryption)
Digital and analog Input/Output (I/O) pins allow connection of a wide variety of sensors and electronic devices
Sodaq Autonomo
• Atmel Cortex M0+ 32bit microcontroller• 16 Digital I/O Pins • 5V USB power and/or 3.7V LiPo battery• Solar charge controller, up to 500mA
charge current• Capable of running indefinitely using
solar generated power
Load cells
hivetool.org
Rudimentary soldering and programming skills
y = 1.0097x - 0.1682
-5
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
0 10 20 30 40 50
Hive
scal
e re
adin
g kg
Actual weight kg
Validating scale measurements
Rain
Costs
Sodaq + GPRS Bee + SIM $ 130Load Cell Amplifier $ 12Load Cells $ 24Miscellaneous $ 24
Total $ 190
Data handling: ThingSpeak
ThingSpeak™ is an IoT* service that allows you to store and visualize live data streams
Data is sent using an HTTP request
*The Internet of Things (IoT) is a system of computing devices and objects with unique identifiers that transfer data over a network
Smart Actions: ThingSpeak
Trigger Action
eg No data, Tweet,low battery, SMS,weight loss HTTP request (eg Slack)
Slack - Collaborative Messaging Tool
From Workshop to Citizen Science
Flow donates 10 hives with additional sets of load cells
Autonomo capable of running multiple scales through separate digital I/O pins
? Do differences in honey harvesting regime effect total honey yield over a season or alter bee behavior ?
Requires synchronized harvesting, data consistency and good record keeping
Results
• Only a few sites generated usable data
• Several had difficulty mastering technologies (electronics or computer)
• Several failed to follow up problems such as faulty connections (eg moisture or expired SIM cards)
• Systems under my direct control functioned well
• Differences in hive performance meant coordinated harvesting was not possible
0
20
40
60
80
100
120Hi
ve w
eigh
t KgSaxon St
Langstroth Flow
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70Hi
ve W
eigh
t KgSt John's
Flow Langstroth
Inferences
With only limited data so far, little overall differences in honey collection between hive types can be demonstrated
The strength of the colonies had more effect on weight changes than the hives
Tracking hive weights was useful for management decisions such as adding supers and swarm control measures
Data alerts via smart phone were helpful
The Guardian Newspaper (Australian edition) Sunday 5th August
Citizen Science
Obtaining data that is robust enough to answer the original questions is challenging
Citizen Science requires considerable commitment from both participants and principals
Future IoT communications
• Low-power, wide-area network technology (LPWAN)
• LoRaWAN is a long range and low power radio frequency protocol
• SigFox
• Cellular IoT
• NB-IoT uses spare cellular spectrum
• 5G ?
Technologies aimed at low cost and power consumption
LoRaWAN data from a Langstroth(NB: Melbourne in winter)
2021222324252627282930
Kg
LoRa Scale