Robotic beehive saves honeybees from cold and climate peril.
A team of roboticists and biologists from Switzerland and Austria has developed a robotic honeycomb to prevent honeybees from dying due to "chill coma" during cold winters. The robot is built into a hive box and directly sends heat thermally into a honeycomb, which is a gentle approach that does not surprise or alarm the bees. The robot monitors conditions in the hive and adjusts the amount of heat delivered accordingly. The team tested their hive by enticing 4,000 bees to make it their home over the 2020–2021 winter and found that their efforts led to the survival of the hive during a cold snap when bees in other nearby hives died.