Founded in 2016, this Korean SME has developed a robot that can be used by even beginners in beekeeping and increases the efficiency of beekeeping by reducing labor and time requirements.
Existing traditional methods require manual work to harvest honey. When workers have to work with a large number of hives, it requires much labor and time, and if workers are not skillful, they may suffer from pain in their shoulders and hands.
To improve these problems, this SME has researched and developed equipment that can reduce labor and time requirements and increase efficiency, and is currently selling it on the market, and is conducting R&D with a government agency in another country.
In addition, it received the 2021 Las Vegas CES Innovation Award in the robotics field, and 7 R&D cases were selected with Korean national institutions, and 9 awards were received from various government agencies.
The products developed by this SME are an automated hive controller, automated beehive gate, and wasp detector. Other pieces of equipment are also being researched and developed.
First, to harvest honey from 7 hives in one hive box, the workers have to take out each hive one by one by hand and brush off the bees attached to each hive with a fumigator or brush. However, the Automated Hive Controller can carry out this task automatically.
Second, it is an automated beehive gate. The management of temperature and humidity is very important in beekeeping. Bees are very sensitive to temperature and humidity, and if the inside of the hive is dry, problems such as poor growth of bee larvae occur.
Through this automated beehive bate, workers can remotely open and close the small gate of a hive while monitoring the condition of a hive through a smartphone application. In addition, it is compatible with the water supplier which supplies medicines and sugar water, and the existing pollen collector. It also works automatically according to the condition of the hive through big data and deep learning. Compared to the existing manual work, installing this device allows even beginners who work with a large number of hives to work quickly and easily.
The third, the wasp detector. When wasps appear, a large number of bees come out to defend them, and they are killed by the wasps. To prevent this problem, when wasps appear, it is a detection device that detects wasps and prevents them from coming out or entering the hive by working with the automated beehive gate.