Innovation now touches every sector of the economy, from aerospace to healthcare and tourism. It is also integrated into companies working to protect the environment.
The latest United Nations Conference on Biodiversity (COP 15) ended with an important agreement between 188 member countries, which committed to specific actions achievable by 2030, including the sustainable use and management of biodiversity and halving global food waste.
Companies at the cutting edge of innovation have already positioned themselves in these sectors, and it is ultimately with the combined help of public authorities and private enterprise that the common good will be achieved. Achieving these objectives should also help accelerate the growth of companies offering innovative, sustainable and efficient solutions.
Perfectly in line with this underlying trend, and featured in Vintage Altaroc Odyssey 2021, Beewise has created the world's first connected beehive. The company saved over 160 million bees in 2022. For its part, Blue White Robotics is revolutionizing the world of agriculture by equipping existing infrastructures with intelligent algorithms.
"Saving bees to save the world
Founded in 2018, Israeli company Beewise has developed the world's1st autonomous beehive with a robotic beekeeper that reduces bee mortality by 80%.
The Beewise hive is equipped with sensors and cameras that monitor hive conditions such as temperature, humidity and pollen count in real time. The data collected is then processed by artificial intelligence to provide precise information on the state of the hive.
Beewise has positioned itself as a company focused on sustainability and the environment. The company is committed to providing sustainable solutions for beekeeping and helping to preserve bees, essential for pollinating crops. Thanks to the data collected, the Beewise hive makes it possible to reduce bee mortality by providing them with a safe and healthy environment.
Its technology reduces bee mortality by 80%, increasing average yields by at least 50%, while eliminating around 90% of manual labor compared with traditional hives.
As Saar Safra, the company's CEO, explains: "Our beekeeper customers typically own 10,000 traditional hives housing 10,000 colonies, and derive their income from pollination and honey production. They usually inspect their hives and look after their bees once a month at best. With our solution, they can see what's going on in their hives 24/7. We give them a better tool to manage their business, and help bees to better overcome today's stress factors. It's a win-win situation for everyone."
He continues: " The feedback we receive from our beekeeper customers encourages us to continue improving our platform, which we are constantly doing, and our BeeHome is going from strength to strength. For example, the BeeHome's integrated honey harvester used to take 19 minutes to harvest honey from our boxes, but now it only takes 15 minutes. That said, even if the beekeepers are the customers who pay us, our priority is above all the bees."
Blue White Robotics revolutionizes agricultural infrastructure
Computer vision, process automation and data analysis have boosted production in many industries. They are now being deployed in agriculture, a sector with its own technological challenges and constraints.
One company stands out in the transformation of agricultural production through task empowerment. Present at Vintage Altaroc 2021, Blue White Robotics equips existing infrastructures with intelligent algorithms that improve employee productivity and safety. In concrete terms, its platform collects and distributes data enabling the creation of new services, thus increasing yields and reducing inputs for farms.
Its revolutionary approach integrates new technologies at a time when farmers are experiencing a shortage of human labor and rising costs accentuated by increasingly complicated weather conditions.
Blue White Robotics works hand in hand with farmers to provide a complete solution to the major challenges they face. Both parties work closely together.
Traditional tractors are converted into autonomous equipment. Blue White Robotics then develops a single-operator control platform, and at the same time trains operators to master the technology and operation of their autonomous tractor fleets, before piloting them themselves.
"The platform doesn't really care whether it's a tractor, a lawnmower, a truck or a drone," explains Adam Fine, US Business Development Manager. "The aim is to turn information into action and enable you to make good decisions, so that vehicles can perform the most demanding tasks. Theseare the tasks that normally require a grower to spend 12 hours a day in the cab of a hot vehicle, or expose them to chemicals, which have an impact on workers' health."
He adds: "We're a bit selective about the producers we work with, because they have to understand that this is a growing technology and have the right attitude about it. There has to be a certain comfort level on both sides because we're building something together."
