Automatic Loading Unit

In the laboratory, bees are loaded into bee holders using tweezers. A skilled person can easily load 30 bees in half an hour. This approach is good enough for laboratory work and for applications where only a small quantity of bees are required. However, applications such as cargo screening or airport security, where a daily output of thousands of bees will be required, the process needs to be automated.

The Bee Sensor System begins with an automatic bee loading unit. Bees collected from the hive are loaded into bee holders.

The process is simple. The bees are confined such that they will walk into a tube. Once in the tube, they are pushed gently into the bee holder. A spring is released to hold the bee in place.

The picture below is our proof-of-principle prototype which can load 30-50 bees in an hour - provided the electronics do not fry in the process. This unit will be further developed once the other major components are completed.