Automated Entrance Monitoring to Investigate Honey Bee Foraging Trips Using Open-Source Wireless Platform and Fiducial Tags

This repository contains the hardware and software designs for the BeeCam-AprilTag system, an automated monitoring entrance for honey bee colonies using Raspberry Pi computers and cameras within a local wireless network. The system relies on attaching AprilTags to the thorax of honey bees to individually identify their in-and-out activity within the colony, thereby estimating foraging trips. It is based on open-source Raspberry Pi computers, cameras, and commercially available off-the-shelf components, ensuring open access to both hardware and software. The entire system was programmed using Python and the Linux-based Raspberry Pi operating system.