Projektbeschreibung
Roboter zur Rettung der Bienenkönigin
Als die erfolgreichsten Bestäuber der Welt spielen Bienen eine große Rolle in allen Aspekten des Ökosystems. Daher könnte jeder Rückgang der Bienenbestände eine Bedrohung für die globale Landwirtschaft darstellen. In diesem Zusammenhang entwickelt das EU-finanzierte Projekt RoboRoyale nun mikrorobotische und biologische Verfahren sowie Technologien für maschinelles Lernen und kombiniert sie zu einem System, das das Wohlergehen der Bienenkönigin, die für den Fortpflanzungserfolg und die Effizienz einer Kolonie verantwortlich ist, unterstützen kann. Konkret soll das Mikrorobotersystem um die Königin herum arbeiten. So wird dieses Multirobotersystem beispielsweise die Hofbienen ersetzen, die für die Fütterung, Pflege und Reinigung der Königin zuständig sind, sowie den Pheromontransfer von der Königin zu den Arbeiterbienen erleichtern.
Ziel
Earth's ecosystems are in a rapid decline of species diversity and abundance. One of the most affected groups is honeybees, a keystone species that play a key role in pollination and hence crucial for ecosystem stability. The goal of the RoboRoyale project is to develop and combine micro-robotic, biological, and machine learning technologies into a system that can support the well-being of the honeybee queen, the single key individual responsible for the reproductive success and efficiency of the colony. The core of the project is the development of a micro-robotic system, designed to operate around the queen. This multi-robot system will replace the “court bees” that are in charge of feeding, grooming and cleaning of the queen as well as the facilitation of pheromone transfer from the queen to the workers. Through a combination of machine learning, behavioral modeling and advanced control methods, our system will gradually learn how to groom the queen in order to regulate her egg-laying activity and pheromone production to optimize the hive’s macroscopic variables (e.g. brood production) in a scientifically and ecologically informed way. The developed bio-hybrid system will serve as an important scientific tool to study honeybee biology, to support the honeybee colony health and efficiency, and to provide a stabilizing factor on the surrounding ecosystem. Moreover, showing that one can achieve a positive impact on large scale ecosystems by using microrobots to affect one single living organism, will bring radical new insights into novel possibilities of bio-hybrid technology. Although risky, the potential impact of the project will lead to foundational scientific and biotechnological approaches to synthesize symbiotic super-organisms of cooperating robots and animals. The interdisciplinary nature of the project will pave the way towards microscopic bio-compatible sensors and actuators needed to realize game-changing bio-medical, robotic and automotive systems.
Wissenschaftliches Gebiet
- natural sciencesbiological scienceszoologyentomologyapidology
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensors
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystems
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringrobotics
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencemachine learning
Schlüsselbegriffe
Programm/Programme
Aufforderung zur Vorschlagseinreichung
Andere Projekte für diesen Aufruf anzeigenUnterauftrag
H2020-FETOPEN-2018-2019-2020-01
Finanzierungsplan
RIA - Research and Innovation actionKoordinator
DH1 3LE Durham
Vereinigtes Königreich