SIP14
Identifying Insect Pests in Leafy Green
Vegetables Using AI Image Recognition (BugFinderAI)
Sector: Apiculture / Animal Health Monitoring / Farm Automation
Country of the Pilot: Slovenia
About the SIP
Smart Community Integrated Beehive (SCIBee) aims to protect bee colonies and enhance pollination-based agriculture through automated monitoring, treatment, and community-driven data sharing. The pilot, located at Hitrovi Farm in Slovenia, is co-developed by the University of Ljubljana and local beekeepers to address the increasing environmental stress threatening honeybee populations.
SCIBee introduces a low-cost, open-source beehive management system that automates three critical aspects of apiculture:
- Varroa mite detection and treatment,
- Protection from pesticide exposure, and
- Monitoring of food availability and foraging conditions.
By integrating local farming data with real-time hive measurements, SCIBee enables preventive rather than reactive management—helping beekeepers act at the right time while contributing to broader agricultural sustainability.
The Problem
Bee colonies are under increasing stress due to climate extremes, pesticide use, and emerging diseases, leading to declining hive health and reduced pollination efficiency. Traditional monitoring methods rely on manual inspection, time-consuming, labor-intensive, and limited by the beekeeper’s presence on-site.
Small-scale beekeepers, in particular, lack access to affordable and automated tools that could help detect early signs of colony distress or coordinate with nearby farmers on pesticide use. This results in preventable colony losses and lower productivity, impacting both honey production and pollination-dependent crops.
The Solution
SCIBee delivers an innovative dual-mode (cloud and edge) Agricultural Digital Solution (ADS) combining custom hardware, intelligent software, and community data sharing to safeguard bee colonies.
- Cloud-based ADS – Each beehive is equipped with environmental sensors (for temperature, humidity, pressure, and weight), an ESP32 camera for AI-based Varroa mite detection, and actuators for automated treatment and gate control. Data are transmitted via LTE and processed in the cloud, where algorithms evaluate hive status, detect anomalies, and recommend interventions (e.g., initiating varroa treatment or closing hive entrances during nearby pesticide application).
- Edge-based ADS – In areas with limited connectivity, decision-making occurs locally on a Raspberry Pi Zero using embedded AI models (TinyML). The system operates offline, and data synchronization with the cloud occurs automatically via WiFi when the beekeeper is nearby. This mode ensures functionality even in remote apiaries without continuous internet access.
The ADS integrates five OpenAgri OS Services:
- Digital Farm Calendar, to log hive and farming activities;
- Weather Data Service, for optimal treatment scheduling and food availability estimation;
- Pest & Disease Management Service, for rule-based decision-making;
- Gatekeeper, for secure community data exchange; and
- Semantic Model, for standardized, interoperable data formats.
By uniting open hardware, AI-powered analytics, and community-sourced environmental data, SCIBee reduces colony losses, minimizes pesticide exposure, and improves overall beekeeping efficiency—while strengthening collaboration between farmers and beekeepers.