Patent Application
20210400926
Embodiments include a protective system is provided for insect living enclosures such as beehives. In examples, a protective system includes a listening subsystem and a spray subsystem. The spray subsystem is positionable to enable an agent to be dispensed from an outlet in a desired location relative to an entrance of the insect living enclosure. The listening subsystem is further operable to acoustically detect a threat about the entrance. Further, in response to detecting the threat, the listening subsystem is operable to control the spray subsystem to dispense the agent from the outlet.
In some embodiments, the listening subsystem includes an acoustic sensor and a signal processor. The signal processor is coupled to the acoustic sensor to detect an acoustic signal for activity that occurs about an entrance of the enclosure. Still further, the acoustic sensor can be positioned at or near the entrance of the insect enclosure.
Still further, in some examples, the listening subsystem acoustically detects a threat to the insect enclosure by comparing the acoustic signal of the activity about the entrance with an acoustic threat signature. In some examples, the threat signature is the sound of a wasp or other specifies of Hymenoptera insect, where the insect living enclosure is a beehive. In some variations, the listening subsystem acoustically detects the threat by comparing the acoustic signal of the activity about the entrance with acoustic signals logged from prior time intervals. Thus, for example, the listening subsystem can detect a threat when the acoustic signal of the activity about the entrance is abnormal as compared to acoustic signals logged from prior time intervals.
In some examples, the spray subsystem includes a reservoir, a control valve and a spray head. The reservoir retains the agent above the entrance so that gravity at least partially forces the agent to dispense when the control valve is in an open state. Further, the control valve can be controllable by the listening subsystem between open and closed states. Still further, in some examples, the spray head and the acoustic sensor are positioned within a threshold distance of one another.
In variations, the protective system can be powered in whole or in part by a solar power subsystem and/or battery module.
In other embodiments, an assembly is provided for use as an insect living enclosure (e.g., beehive). The assembly can include an insect living structure (e.g., beehive structure to house bees) having an entrance. Further, the assembly can include a protective system such as shown and described by various examples, The listening subsystem is operable to acoustically detect a threat about the entrance, and in response to detecting the threat, control the spray subsystem to dispense the agent from the outlet.
With respect to examples as described, the agent can be any liquid, powder, gas (including aerosol) that is harmful to a particular type of insect. For example, the agent can be dish soap, which is known to be harmful to wasps.
In examples, the assembly can be configured to allow for the protective subsystem to be assembled about the insect living enclosure.
Still further, in some examples, a method is provided to acoustically monitor an entrance of an insect living enclosure. Through acoustic monitoring, a threat is detecting to the insect living enclosure. In response to detecting the threat, a spray subsystem is controlled to dispense an agent about the entrance of the insect living enclosure.
A method such as described by some examples can be implemented using a protective system such as described with various examples and embodiments.
According to examples, a device, system, assembly and method is provided for protecting commercial beehives from aggressive insect species. It works by sensing the presence of aggressive insects approaching the hive entrance via sensors and then activates a protective spray which hits the invaders or scouts. The sprayed invaders or scouts and incapacitated and no longer can attack the hive or return to their home hives to bring back extra works to launch a larger attack thereby protecting the hive.
Some embodiments relate to the protection of beehives which may be vulnerable to attack from predatory flying insects. For example commercial honey bees such as Apis Mellifera, do not have a defense against an attack from Vespa Mandarinia, a large giant wasp family. In this case the wasps send a scout which, if it finds a hive, will bring back dozens of wasps to attack said hive. These aggressive wasps can kill as many as 30 bees per minute each by using their large mandibles and are immune for stings from regular bees. A swarm of these wasps can kill tens of thousands of bees in an hour devastating the hive. The wasps then invade the hive and take home the bee larvae to feed to their own brood.
Bees in certain regions of the world are adapted to these attacks. When a scout approaches they form a massive “bee ball” around the invading scout. By beating their wings aggressively these bees then are able to raise the temperature around the invader to such a point as to kill it via heat. This process can consume over a hundred bees but since the invading scout does not return to its own nest the hive is saved from a larger attack.
The listening subsystem 130 includes a signal processor(s) 132 and an acoustic sensor 134 (e.g., microphone). The acoustic sensor 134 can be positioned about an entrance 102 of the beehive structure 110. In this way, the acoustic sensor 134 can capture sounds from a region of the entrance 102. In some examples, the acoustic sensor 134 is positioned relative to the entrance 102 to capture sounds of activity that are in front of but exterior to the beehive structure 110. In variations, the acoustic sensor 134 is positioned to capture sounds which are at the threshold of the entrance, or just inside the interior of the beehive structure 110. Still further, in some variations, the beehive structure 110 includes multiple entrances 102, and each entrance includes or is provided with a corresponding acoustic sensor 134.
The signal processor 132 includes circuitry, electronics, firmware, software or other logic to (i) store baseline acoustic information, (ii) capture and process sounds generated from activity about the entrance 102, and (iii) compare an acoustic signal of the captured/processed sounds with the baseline acoustic information to determine when there is a threat to the colony of bees. In examples, the signal processor 132 implements an adaptive acoustic signature detector that is tuned, or otherwise configured to detect a particular type of threat. For example, for a colony of beehives, the threat may correspond to a wasp or hornet, such as a scout hornet.
According to variations, the signal processor 132 of the listening subsystem 132 can use machine learning or artificial intelligence pattern matching techniques to most accurately and efficiently identify bee activity and predator visits. This is far superior than using frequency based bands as has been done in the past since it is more accurate and can be used to identify predator types even in the presence of intense bee activity or masking such as during storms or human visits to the hive.
Still further, in some examples, the baseline acoustic information corresponds to an acoustic threat signature, where the acoustic threat signature is the sound of, for example, a hornet scout. As an addition or variation, the acoustic information corresponds to sounds of bee traffic through the entrance 102 during prior time intervals (e.g., sounds of bees over several days). For example, the normal sounds of the colony can be recorded and logged over several days or other time interval. The signal processor 132 can then detect when there is a significant deviation as between a current beehive activity at the entrance 102 and the “normal” sound of the beehive.
In examples, the 140 includes a reservoir 142, a supply tube 144, a control valve 146 and a spray head 148. The reservoir 142 stores an agent that can kill or otherwise deter an invading organism (e.g., hornet). For example, the reservoir 142 can be used to store a dish soap solution. The control valve 146 can be coupled to the signal processor 132. The signal processor 132 operates to acoustically monitor and detect a threat to the colony of the 110. The reservoir can be used to retain a soapy liquid, pesticide or other agent to kill, for example, hornets or wasps.
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In variations, the listening subsystem 132, 230 includes a signal processor that daps across network units, utilizes sleep cycles to save power, and operates separately in a listening (e.g., passive) or active mode. In examples, the 232 can be adaptive and operative through a network connection and interface (Network interface (IOT/WiFi, Cellular, Zigbee, WAN, BT, mesh, NFC).
Among other advantages, examples as described can utilize adaptive signal processing to distinguish normal bee activity from predators.
It can protect a beehive in all normal weather conditions, including at night or wet weather, with simple refillable spray action
It can log and detect both normal bee activity, predator visits, and other events, so that wildlife officials and beekeepers can coordinate monitor activities.
It can operate indefinitely on renewable power as sentinel thereby allowing long term inexpensive operation
It can be coordinated with multiple sites to map both normal bee and predator activities
The spray can be a soapy water which is non-toxic to humans but highly toxic to hornets. This will prevent the hornet from returning to its nest to bring other scouts.
It also leaves the hornet nest intact—allowing the hornets to predate other insect pests while not interfering with honey bees.
Minimal numbers of bees would be impacted allowing honey operation to be uninterrupted.
It is contemplated for embodiments described herein to extend to individual elements and concepts described herein, independently of other concepts, ideas or system, as well as for embodiments to include combinations of elements recited anywhere in this application. Although embodiments are described in detail herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to those precise embodiments. As such, many modifications and variations will be apparent to practitioners skilled in this art. Accordingly, it is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the following claims and their equivalents. Furthermore, it is contemplated that a particular feature described either individually or as part of an embodiment can be combined with other individually described features, or parts of other embodiments, even if the other features and embodiments make no mentioned of the particular feature. Thus, the absence of describing combinations should not preclude the inventor from claiming rights to such combinations.
This application claims benefit or priority to provisional U.S. Application No. 63/035,557, filed on Jun. 7, 2020, the aforementioned priority application being hereby incorporated by reference in entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 63035557 | Jun 2020 | US |
| Child | 17341381 | US |
