According to foreign media reports, beekeeping can be a difficult task, because the keeper must repeatedly bend down to lift the beeswax/honey panels in each hive. The Hive Controller was designed to assist in this work, using robots to lift and collect the hive. Hive Controller is made by South Korea's Daesung Company (aka Smart Hive), and when the user removes the lid of the hive, the Hive Controller is simply placed on top of the hive.
The width of the powder-coated aluminum frame of the device can be adjusted to accommodate honeycombs of different sizes. There are two options for power: either by an extension cable plugged into a socket or by a battery pack – a single charge can reportedly meet the electricity needs of about 50 hives.
Once the Hive Controller is in place, the user can launch it with the push of a button. It then proceeds to put a set of hooks into the hive to remove each hive and hang it in turn on a set of built-in arms. When the hive is pulled out, the soft brush moves along the sides, which is said to cause no harm to the bees.
After that, the Hive Controller continues to move around the tracks, over the top of the hive until all the hives have been pulled out. It then notifies the beekeeper with an audio alert so that the beekeeper can take the hive off his arm to extract the honey.
According to Daesung, the device can be moved and operated by one person, and the time it takes to remove all the hives from one hive can be halved. It is said to weigh about 11 kilograms, plus an additional 2 kilograms of the battery pack.
Hive Controller is not only the winner of the 2021 CES Innovation Awards, but is currently the subject of Indiegogo's events. Assuming it eventually goes into production, proponents will get it for $2,100 — $3,000 for a planned future retail price.