The Italian Arnia, founded in 2009, was one of the first in Europe to provide technical support for hives.
The beekeeper can provide all the necessary informationreceive from any device with Internet access, and notifications are sent to the apiary owner’s email if the bees need to be fed, as well as if the hive has been damaged or stolen. During its operation, the company raised $700,000 and collected terabytes of data.
Arnia is currently used by farmers from 14countries, and devices, the cost of which starts at $ 300, analyze the condition of hundreds of hives. At the moment, the company is developing more compact devices that can collect data not on the whole hive, but on its individual parts.
Most successful startup so far - BeeHerofrom Tel Aviv. In just three years, the BeeHero touch sensor has been installed in 20,000 hives and now collects information on a billion bees. The startup raised more than $ 5 million to develop its sensors, and the production of one device, according to BeeHero co-founder Omer Davidi, costs only a few dollars.
In the future, BeeHero plans toprovide the sensor for free - you will only need to pay for a subscription to information about the hive processed by artificial intelligence. The principle of operation of the sensor is similar to the device of the Arnia company - the conditions inside the hive are analyzed, down to the stress level of the queen bee. The technology makes it possible to effectively support the vital activity of bees, and this, in turn, helps to increase the volume of some types of crops by 30–100%, Davidi told TechCrunch.
Pollenity is not the only company thataimed at manufacturing robots for beekeepers. At the Delft University of Technology in Holland, instead of looking for ways to save the bees, scientists started designing robot bees that would take over the pollination function if the insects died out. And another Israeli startup, Edete, produces almond pollination machines that are now being tested in gardens in Australia and Israel. In the future, the company plans to produce devices for pollination of apple, cherry, pear and apricot trees.
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