A novel approach for real-time monitoring of honey-bees across their natural habitat is presented herein. We present a wearable device which scavenges energy from the bee's mechanical vibrations to power the transmission of location data while ensuring minimal physical hindrance. The geo-physical location of honey-bees is determined by implementing a compact and low weight scanning system that can be used with a stationary receiver or coupled to a movable receiver for tracking across the entire foraging range. This is achieved through the combination and synchronization of a RF detector, steerable microstrip array and a microcontroller to estimate angle of arrival using received signal strength indicator (RSSI). The present approach addresses the fundamental limitations of current telemetry systems in terms of cost and adverse size/weight impact over the bee foraging behavior.

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A novel approach for real-time monitoring of honey bees across their entire foraging range is presented herein. Energy harvesting of bee mechanical vibrations is used to power the transmission of bee location data while ensuring minimal physical harm or flight hindrance. Additionally a 5.8 GHz receiver is integrated in a multisource energy harvesting unit which utilizes wind, solar and RF energy scavenging to monitor the location of the bees. Designs and considerations for the power circuitry, transmitter and receiver are discussed.

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