Printed Sensor based Weight Measuring Platform for Remote Real Time Beehive Weight Tracking

监测蜂箱参数对评估蜜蜂的生命、确保蜂箱健康和避免疾病至关重要。Nectar Inc.正在设计和生产基于传感器的设备，以收集与商业应用有关的蜂群健康数据。他们目前的设备收集蜂箱的温度、相对湿度和蜂群的声音。他们的目标之一是测量蜂箱重量，这是一个重要的参数。通常，商业养蜂人和蜂箱传感器供应商使用称重秤或称重传感器来测量蜂箱重量。这些解决方案是昂贵的，并且不容易操作，因为是 ** 沉重和庞大的。在这个项目中，我们的目标是设计和开发一个符合人体工程学的重量传感平台，该平台将 ** 能够测量蜂箱重量，并将其真实的时间无线传输到养蜂人的个人设备。蜂箱重量监测系统将基于四个丝网印刷电容压力传感器，放置在完整蜂箱下面的四个不同角落。每个压力传感器将具有平行板 ** 结构，其中介电层将夹在两个重叠的导电电极之间。** 柔性电介质材料将根据施加在电容器上的负载而变形。由于变形，导体电极之间的距离将改变，从而改变它们之间的电容。压力传感器将与读出和通信电子设备集成，以无线方式将重量测量发送到网关，以进一步将其传输到云花蜜。拟议的重量传感平台将重量轻，尺寸小，用户友好，成本低，易于安装，并将消除养蜂人需要用昂贵，沉重和笨重的设备来测量蜂箱重量。

It is crucial to monitor beehive parameters to evaluate the lives of honeybees, ensure the health of beehives and**avoid diseases. Technologies Nectar Inc. is designing and producing sensors-based devices to collect data**relating to the bees colonies health for commercial applications. Their current devices collect beehive**temperature, relative humidity and swarming sound. One of their goal is to measure beehive weight which is an**important parameter. Usually, commercial beekeepers and beehive sensor providers use a weight scale or load**cell to measure the beehive weight. These solutions are expensive and not easy to manipulate because of being**heavy and bulky. In this project, we aim to design and develop an ergonomic weight sensing platform that will**be able measure the beehive weight and wirelessly transmit it to the beekeeper's personal device in real time.**The beehive weight monitoring system will be based on four screen printed capacitive pressure sensors placed**at the four different corners underneath the complete beehive. Each pressure sensor will have a parallel plate**structure where a dielectric layer will be sandwiched between two overlapping conducting electrodes. The**flexible dielectric material will be deformed according to the load applied on the capacitor. Because of**deformation, the distance between the conductor electrodes will vary changing the capacitance between the**them. The pressure sensors will be will be integrated with read out and communication electronics to wirelessly**send the weight measurements to a gateway to further transmit them to the Cloud Nectar. The proposed weight**sensing platform will be lightweight, small in size, user friendly, low cost and easy to setup and will eliminate**the need of beekeepers to measure the hive weight with expensive, heavy and bulky devices.