Design and implementation of a remote monitoring system to detect contamination in beehives

The global use of agrochemicals and pesticides has increased due to the development of agricultural technologies. Evidence of the toxicity of these chemicals has been detected in beehives. In order to find the relationship between the ecosystem´s contamination and the behavior of bees, we developed a device that samples audio and temperature in hives. This correlation would allow the use of apiaries as remote monitors of contamination. This paper presents the design and implementation of the system, including both hardware and software specifications. The appliance takes samples on 14 channels: six to measure temperature and eight for audio, being the latter of up to 1 kHz. It calculates the Fast Fourier transform and keeps its module to represent the energy in each frequency band. All the information is locally stored in a flash memory card and is later sent to a remote server using GPRS. The device is based on a Texas Instruments development board that uses the Stellaris LM4F232H5QD microcontroller. The system can be remotely configured and it is energetically autonomous since its battery is solar-charged.