The Artificial Life Lab at the University of Graz is led by Schmickl. In various parts of the world, studies have shown that insect populations are decreasing. After working in the field of robot swarms for several years, Schmickl decided to flip his work around and design robots to help nature.
He wants to focus on bees. Schmickl believes that coming to the aid of honeybees and other pollinators could help strengthen the entire environment. Some companies are already offering augmented beehives that monitor conditions inside or even robotically tend the bees. Schmickl and his colleagues would like to use technology to manipulate insects.
Talking to a group of people.
The European Union is funding a project called Hiveopolis. The group's hive is similar to a tree trunk where honeybees might nest. The hive is made from 3D-printed clay and grown on recycled coffee grounds.
The prototype hive has cameras, sensors, and devices that can change the temperature or air flow in the hive. Experiments done by Schmickl have shown that moving air slows the bees down.
Tim Landgraf is a professor of artificial and collective intelligence at Freie Universitt Berlin in Germany.
The honeybees perform aaggle dance when they come back from a trip. When enough bees are doing the same dance, they will travel to find the food. Schmickl says it is a kind of opinion polling.
Landgraf built a robot that could perform a waggle dance so convincing that other bees followed it, at least sometimes. He is going to test an improved version of the waggle robot to see if it can help honeybees. The robot doesn't look like a bee Its body is a tube with a wing. It is connected to a motor outside the hive that can move it across the floor.
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