Warning bees in good time of dangers in their environment, such as a change in the weather, or guiding the insects specifically to flowers: what sounds like science fiction is soon to become reality with newly developed technology. An international research team led by the University of Graz wants to develop a "smart city" for bees to help the insects cope with adverse environmental influences. The EU project "Hiveopolis" with a volume of seven million euros was recently launched and is scheduled to run for five years.

According to the university, communication between animals and robots is already working very well. The team led by Thomas Schmickl, Professor of Zoology at the University of Graz and Head of the Artificial Life Lab, recently caused a sensation with an experiment in which bees and zebrafish successfully communicated with each other via robots, even over the hundreds of kilometers between Graz and Lausanne.

Now the scientists want to integrate their technology into the beehive. "Our aim is to provide the insects with technologies that help them to react to changes in the environment in good time," explains Schmickl. This is because the habitats of honey bees are under severe threat, leading to massive die-offs and serious disruption to entire ecosystems.
Sensors will be used to regulate the temperature in the honeycomb, for example, and thus optimize the rearing of offspring. Digital maps will provide information on pesticides at potential food sources and send a warning to the hive. Robots will imitate the bee dance - which, incidentally, was decoded by Nobel Prize winner Karl von Frisch, who works at the University of Graz - and thus notify the bee colony. "We want to influence where the insects make their pollination flights," explains Schmickl. They have already researched the possibilities of such swarm control in the previous large-scale ASSISI project.

Hiveopolis - meaning "bee city" - will be implemented until 2024 together with five partner universities - École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Free University of Brussels, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, Latvian Agricultural University - and the Bulgarian company Bee Smart Technologies OOD. Interest groups such as beekeepers, farmers, programmers, environmentalists and educators are to be involved in the research and collaborate on the development of a smart beehive.