February 3, 2021 Stefanie S

SAMS Project Results

Project Results

Over the project duration of three years the SAMS team, with the support, trust and involvement of national stakeholders, were able to aquire the following results:

 

  • SAMS User Centered Design Glossary

Within the SAMS project, a UCD Glossary was developed to make sure that the project team has the same understanding of UCD terminologies. In order to make the UCD collaborative process more understandable, some of the terms in the UCD Glossary was enriched with stories on how the terms and methodologies were used within the SAMS project.

  • Persona description of typical local beekeepers

Persona is a description of a user and what he or she intends to do when using an interactive system. Personas are not real; they are examples invented to stand for real users based on empirically determined data, for example, from observations or interviews. The SAMS monitoring system development depends on the beekeepers’ background and context factors, for example, types of modern beehives they use, bee types they breed, electricity availability in their beekeeping site, and how deep they are personally influenced by beekeeping traditions and by their cultural environment and family traditions. Based on the results of the context of use analysis in the Field Research (Stage 1), SAMS personas, collectively represent the major behaviours of beekeepers in Ethiopia and Indonesia.

 

  • SAMS monitoring system

At the University of Kassel, the team of the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering developed the SAMS bee monitoring system based on a RaspberryPi Zero W. Weight, temperature and humidity data as well as frequency spectra of the sounds in the bee colony can be recorded at userdefined measurement intervals. SAMS colleagues from the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies developed a system based on a NodeMCU that is also designed to measure temperature, weight and humidity more energy efficient but does not use acoustic recording. The data can be accessed and visualised via the SAMS Data Warehouse.

During the SAMS system implementation phase, beekeepers from Ethiopia and Indonesia were interviewed on their attitude towards the SAMS system. According to their answers, constraints and countermeasures were formulated.

  • PCB file

The PCB files for SAMS HIVE monitoring system based on Raspberry Pi Zero W are accessible here

The PCB related files (BOM and Gerber) for SAMS HIVE monitoring system that is based on the ESP8266 WiFi microchip, can be found at here

  • NodeMCU system

For bee colony monitoring, complementary to the SAMS HIVE monitoring system that is based on the Raspberry Pi Zero W, a simplified version was developed for ESP8266 microchip based platforms like the NodeMCU. The system measures temperature, humidity and weight. The collected data is being sent to the remote SAMS Data Warehouse. The open- source code can be found on the SAMS Github page. More information on the NodeMCU system can be found in the Manual on HIVE Construction and Operation. 

  • Printable 3D Sensor Case

For the SAMS system a sensor case has been designed that can be produced with standard 3D printers. The open source 3D models can be found on our SAMS Github page – Front, middle and back plate. On our SAMS Github page you will find all the relevant files for the implementation of the SAMS system and the SAMS Data Warehouse.

 

  • SAMS Data Warehouse 

The SAMS team of the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies developed a basic instruction on how to connect general bee colony monitoring hardware to SAMS Data Warehouse (DW). This instruction eases the process of sending data from any general bee colony monitoring system to the SAMS Data Warehouse for storage and analysis. The Data Warehouse is an online platform which functions like a virtual workspace, where beekeepers can store, access and assess their bee data. The SAMS DW is a universal system, which can operate with different data inputs and have flexible data processing algorithms. Users can sign up into the DW using their own email/password or google account.

  • Github sources for SAMS system and SAMS Data Warehouse (individual adaption)

The developed SAMS IT solutions (SAMS DW and SAMS HIVE monitoring systems) are all open-source and can be found via the SAMS project github which contains all repositories:

 

  • SAMS Decision Support System (DSS)

In general, a DSS can be defined as any system that assists in any kind the decision making process, so its used to support the decision-makers without replacing them. In the SAMS case a DSS is suppose to assist the beekeepers in their daily apiary management. In other words, a DSS is a system, which is used for automatic data analysis with the main aim to recognize the status of the monitored object. DSS can help to automatically identify different bee colony states and inform the beekeeper if some activities are necessary. Furthe information can be found on SAMSwiki

The project partner from Latvia developed instruction on how to connect general bee colony monitoring hardware to the SAMS data warehouse. Anyone interested in testing the SAMS Data Warehouse is welcome to try it. Furthermore as the support system should be used by the beekeeper an interface for the application has been designed with Figma.

  • SAMS knowledge hub – SAMSwiki

The SAMSwiki is a publicly available database dealing with bees and beekeeping in Ethiopia and Indonesia and has the approach of a continuously growing knowledge database, which is available in English, Amharic and Bahasa. Not only consortium members, but also researchers or simply interested people are invited to contribute content to existing topics or to create new chapters to collect beekeeping knowledge from around the globe. Furthermore, it contains all SAMS results to ensure long-term availability.

Use the links below to explore the site contents. The primary documentation language is English, but we are working on the installation of a translator plug-in. In the meantime, please read the instruction on how to use the google translator for the SAMSwiki. For general questions about SAMSwiki see the SAMSwiki community and the How to use the SAMSwiki? pages.

  • SAMS Business models

54 SAMS Business Models have been developed by start-ups, SMEs and students in different business development activities supported by the project partners UNPAD, ICEADDIS, UNILV, UNIKAS, UNIGRA. The SAMS Business Models range from honey reselling, digital marketplaces, beekeeping supply, beekeeping products for health and beauty to tourism, education and technology incl. remote monitoring beehives, DSS, PCB, Data Warehouse, etc. The business models from Ethiopia, Europe and Indonesia can be found here.

  • SAMS Partnerships

To ensure long-term impact of the project achievements, SAMS is establishing three international partnership networks in the spirit of promoting international collaboration and knowledge exchange within the apiculture sector and scientific society. The partnerships aim to foster modern and precision beekeeping and to sustain, refine and disseminate SAMS products and ideas with the objective to support small-hold beekeepers in managing bee health and bee productivity.

  • SAMS Capacity Building and related material

Within the SAMS project many stakeholder from Indonesia, Ethiopia and Europe were trained on how to apply the SAMS system and bee related topics. As the trainings were mostly conducted locally, some of the training materials are available in local languages. If you wish to download the CB material, please visit this SAMSwiki page.

  • SAMS Publications

Within the SAMS project, dissemination was one major pillar of the work. The consortium members visited many scientific events, including conferences, webinars, meetings, etc.. Further, the project was disseminated trough media platforms, a quarterly published newsletter, general promotion material and several scientific and non-scientific publications. They all can be found at the project website

  • SAMS videos

Over its project duration several videos were created to promote the benefits of the project.

  • SAMS Conference – ICT in Apiculture

November 2020, the SAMS team was hosting an online conference “SAMS Conference – ICT in Apiculture”. Team members presented the outcome of the SAMS project with informative talks, which are accessible via the SAMS YouTube channel and are available on the SAMSwiki. The videos perfectly demonstrate the SAMS hardware, software and further explain the implementation processes.