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. 2023 Apr 27:9:e1363.
doi: 10.7717/peerj-cs.1363. eCollection 2023.

Bee colony remote monitoring based on IoT using ESP-NOW protocol

Armands Kviesis  1 , Vitalijs Komasilovs  1 , Niks Ozols  2 , Aleksejs Zacepins  1
Affiliations

Bee colony remote monitoring based on IoT using ESP-NOW protocol

Armands Kviesis et al. PeerJ Comput Sci. .

Abstract

Information and communication technologies, specifically the Internet of Things (IoT), have been widely used in many agricultural practices, including beekeeping, where the adoption of advanced technologies has an increasing trend. Implementation of precision apiculture methods into beekeeping practice depends on availability and cost-effectiveness of honey bee colony monitoring systems. This study presents a developed bee colony monitoring system based on the IoT concept and using ESP8266 and ESP32 microchips. The monitoring system uses the ESP-NOW protocol for data exchange within the apiary and a GSM (Global System for Mobile communication)/GPRS (General packet radio service) external interface for packet-based communication with a remote server on the Internet. The local sensor network was constructed in a star type logical topology with one central node. The use of ESP-NOW protocol as a communication technology added an advantage of longer communication distance between measurement nodes in comparison to a previously used Wi-Fi based approach and faster data exchange. Within the study, five monitoring devices were used for real-time bee colony monitoring in Latvia. The bee colony monitoring took place from 01.06.2022 till 31.08.2022. Within this study, the distance between ESP-NOW enabled devices and power consumption of the monitoring and main nodes were evaluated as well. As a result, it was concluded that the ESP-NOW protocol is well suited for the IoT solution development for honeybee colony monitoring. It reduces the time needed to transmit data between nodes (over a large enough distance), therefore ensuring that the measurement nodes operate in an even lower power consumption mode.

Keywords: Hiveopolis; Internet of Things; Precision apiculture; Wireless sensor networks.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare there are no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Architecture of the data transfer approach.
Schematic view of the data transfer approach, including all components, like measurement and main nodes.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Summarized view of five colonies in the SAMS UI.
Real time data about the measured bee colony parameters presented in the SAMS UI. Data includes weight, temperature in the colony, temperature outside and battery voltage level.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Detailed view in Grafana UI.
The bee colony data in Grafana UI. Charts include bee colony temperature, weight and node battery voltage level and last measured values.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Examples of battery discharge rates.
The lines represent battery discharge rates of two measurement nodes.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Different battery discharge rates for the same measurement node.
Different discharge rates for one measurement node suggesting defective system components or batteries.
Figure 6
Figure 6. Colony weight dynamics during active foraging in an urban environment.
Weight dynamics in bee colonies during active foraging period from June 22, 2022 through July 8, 2022.
Figure 7
Figure 7. Monitored in-hive temperatures.
Temperature dynamics in bee colonies for the selected period from June 21, 2022 thought July 6, 2022 are presented.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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