Source: BEE ALERT TECHNOLOGY, INC. submitted to
SONOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS FOR RAPID DETECTION OF VARROA MITES AND OTHER PATHOLOGIES WITHOUT OPENING THE BEEHIVE
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
TERMINATED
Funding Source
SMALL BUSINESS GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0218830
Grant No.
2009-33610-20137
Project No.
MONK-2009-01137
Proposal No.
2009-01137
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
8.13
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2009
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2012
Grant Year
2009
Project Director
Seccomb, R. A.
Recipient Organization
BEE ALERT TECHNOLOGY, INC.
1620 RODGER ST., SUITE #1
MISSOULA,MT 59802
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Beekeeping is a billion dollar industry, of which honey production plays only a small part. Most beekeepers make their money with crop pollination, charging up to $120 per hive for this service. Crop growers want healthy, strong colonies. It takes a skilled beekeeper about 10 minutes to inspect a colony; the Colony Health Scanner performs the same function in about 2 minutes, and can be operated by relatively unskilled labor. The bee keeping operation with a Colony Health Scanner will be more efficient, save money, and provide healthier bees.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
2113110113010%
2113120113010%
4047210202080%
Knowledge Area
211 - Insects, Mites, and Other Arthropods Affecting Plants; 404 - Instrumentation and Control Systems;

Subject Of Investigation
7210 - Remote sensing equipment and technology; 3120 - Spiders, mites, ticks, and other arthropods; 3110 - Insects;

Field Of Science
1130 - Entomology and acarology; 2020 - Engineering;
Goals / Objectives
We will continue the development of the sonographic bee health detection system. This combination of electronic hardware and software quickly detects the presence (or absence) of a number of bee pathogens, including varroa mites, precursors to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), Nosema Ceranae, hive beetles, and queenlessness. We expect to place 10 to 12 of the fully developed units in the hands of state bee inspectors and large commercial bee keeping operations, leading to full product production and sales of the PDA based system. We also hope to provide an inexpensive, always on, remote monitoring system using the technology developed for the portable device.
Project Methods
In Phase I the difficult scientific research was completed. In Phase II we will continue to collect audio recordings of honey bees suffering from various pathologies, statistic and Artificial Neural Network analysis of these recordings, and integration of the results into the hardware/software system. To facilitate recording, a number of digital audio recorders and beta PDA based health scanners will be distributed to inspectors and a few commercial bee operation. We hope to increase the accuracy from 86% to 95% or better, with a clear and accurate indication of the colony health.

Progress 09/01/09 to 08/31/12

Outputs
OUTPUTS: Activities: Collection and analysis of honey bee recordings including colonies infected with hive beetles, foul brood, Africantized, CCD, and Ceranea. Electronics development in a USB based ultrasonic microphone. Events: Demonstrated the new bee scanner device at the Eastern Apicultural Society meeting in August 2012, and the Montana State Beekeepers meeting in October 2012. Products: Produced a fully operational handheld device for the rapid evaluation of honey bee colony health using sonic fingerprints. A byproduct of this device is a simple USB ultrasonic microphone with potential applications in other fields of study. PARTICIPANTS: Robert Seccomb - Principal Investigator Jerry Bromenshenk - Bee Researcher and Public Outreach Scott Debnam - Senior Bee Researcher Will Leishman - Electronics Technician Joshua Rice - Electronic Technician Lupine Logic, Joe Glassy - Subcontracted computing platform design TARGET AUDIENCES: Honey bee researchers, commercial beekeepers and hobbyist beekeepers. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.

Impacts
Initial use of a single Artificial Neural Network to evaluate bee sounds for a number of maladies proved unsuccessful. Use of an ensemble of networks, each trained to a specific condition, improved accuracy of diagnosis from 86% to 92% correct. Advances in electronics provided an inexpensive alternative to existing computing platforms, allowing us to develop a fully operational device in short amount of time.

Publications

  • Sonic Analysis for Rapid Detection of Varroa Mites and Other Pathologies without Opening the Beehive, Interim Report to USDA NIFA, March 2011, R Seccomb
  • Sonic Analysis for Rapid Detection of Varroa Mites and Other Pathologies without Opening the Beehive, Final Report to USDA NIFA, October 2012, R Seccomb


Progress 09/01/09 to 08/31/10

Outputs
OUTPUTS: Collected diseased and health bee colony recordings, including Africanized colonies from the SouthWestern US and Mite free colonies from Australia. Processed recordings using existing artificial neural networks system, and alternate analysis methods, including ensemble networks to increase accuracy on multiple bee diseases. Produced preliminary schematics for a dedicated recording and analysis device. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals Robert Seccomb - PI, programmer; Jerry Bromenshenk - Co-PI, bee expert; Scott Debnam - Head bee wrangler; Sarah Red-Laird - bee technician; Robert Etter - electronics design; Josh Rice - electronics technician; Organizations Lupine Logic; Collaborators Bee keepers throughout the US, Canada, and Australia TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.

Impacts
Use of an ensemble (multiple) artificial neural networks appears the correct approach for analysising a multitude of bee diseases, rather than a single network. Use of a greater audio spectrum is also indicated, and use of ultra-sonics is worth investigating.

Publications

  • No publications reported this period