How do bees solve navigational challenges in 3D?
Final Report Abstract
3DNaviBee – How do bees solve navigational challenges in 3D? The overall goal of the 3DNaviBee project is to understand how insects use visual information to navigate space in various environments and spatial scales. To achieve this goal, we initially aimed at the development of a new technique for the threedimensional monitoring of the movements of flying insects potentially over long distances and with high spatial resolutions. This technique uses millimetre wave radar and frequency modulation. It aims to provide answers to questions related to the navigation strategies of flying insects. Tracking flying insects using radar technology: The tracking technique developed in the 3DNaviBee project is based on millimetre wave (mm-wave), frequency modulated (FM) and continuous wave (CW) radar technology. These radars are low-cost (~5k€), small-sized, and their wide modulation bandwidth allows range measurements with depth resolutions of a few centimetres. The work carried out by the two French partners of the 3DNaviBee project (LAAS- CNRS and CRCA-CNRS) showed in 2017 that FMCW millimetre wave radars could be very useful in the study of the behaviour of livestock without using tags attached to animals. As part of the 3DNaviBee project, FMCW millimetre wave radars are used to estimate the 3D position in space and over time of flying insects (bumblebees and hornets) whose size (a few centimetres at most) and speed of travel (up to 25 km/h) are significantly different from those of the farm animals that we had previously considered in our studies. It was therefore necessary to develop a new method for detecting small targets moving in space in the largest possible interrogation volumes. This volume is partly limited by the maximum interrogation range of the radars used in the project, which is in the order of a few meters. The interrogation volume can be larger if insects are equipped with a tag (i.e., an object that strongly backscatters the incident electromagnetic field) and/or by increasing the number of radars. Major results of the 3DNaviBee project: The 3DNaviBee project allowed the collection of 3D trajectories of different insects in flight and in various scenarios using millimetre wave FM-CW radars. This collection includes: • 3D trajectories of a non-tagged bumblebees flying around an artificial flower, captured by two radars; • 3D trajectories of non-tagged hornets in flight captured by two radars; • simultaneous 3D trajectories (approximately one second) of two non-tagged bumblebees observed during training flights, and captured by a single radar. On the other hand, the extraction of flying insect trajectories was facilitated by: • increasing the volume of interrogation by multiplying the number of radars; • implementing radar data processing on a High-Performance Computing network (HPC) to reduce computational time; • developing a new algorithm for detecting small targets in flight from raw radar data.
Publications
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3D Trajectories of Multiple Untagged Flying Insects from Millimetre-wave Beamscanning Radar. 2020 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and North American Radio Science Meeting. IEEE.
Dore, Alexandre; Henry, Dominique; Lihoreau, Mathieu & Aubert, Herve
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Millimeter-wave Radars for the Automatic Recording of Sow Postural Activity,” 71st Annual Meeting of European Federation of Animal Science, Porto, Portugal, August 31-Sept. 4 2020
A. Dore, M. Lihoreau, Y. Billon, L. Ravon, S. Reignier, J. Bailly, J.-F. Bompa, E. Ricard, H. Aubert, D. Henry & L. Canario
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Navigation by Honey Bees. Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior, 1-9. Springer International Publishing.
Even, Naïla; Bertrand, Olivier & Lihoreau, Mathieu
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A model of resource partitioning between foraging bees based on learning. PLOS Computational Biology, 17(7), e1009260.
Dubois, Thibault; Pasquaretta, Cristian; Barron, Andrew B.; Gautrais, Jacques & Lihoreau, Mathieu
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A Non-Invasive Millimetre-Wave Radar Sensor for Automated Behavioural Tracking in Precision Farming—Application to Sheep Husbandry. Sensors, 21(23), 8140.
Dore, Alexandre; Pasquaretta, Cristian; Henry, Dominique; Ricard, Edmond; Bompa, Jean-François; Bonneau, Mathieu; Boissy, Alain; Hazard, Dominique; Lihoreau, Mathieu & Aubert, Hervé
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Bumble bees strategically use ground level linear features in navigation. Animal Behaviour, 179, 147-160.
Brebner, Joanna S.; Makinson, James C.; Bates, Olivia K.; Rossi, Natacha; Lim, Ka S.; Dubois, Thibault; Gómez-Moracho, Tamara; Lihoreau, Mathieu; Chittka, Lars & Woodgate, Joseph L.
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« Détection de l’activité posturale de la truie allaitante à l’aide de radars à ondes millimétriques », presented at 53èmes Journées de la Recherche Porcine, Paris, France, Fév. 2021
A. Dore, M. Lihoreau, Y. Billon, L. Ravon, S. Reignier, J. Bailly, J.-F. Bompa, E. Ricard, H. Aubert, D. Henry & L. Canario
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‘How do bees move across the landscapes?’ presented at GDR Ecologie Chimique, Toulouse
M. Lihoreau
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How do bees move across the landscapes?. The Project Repository Journal, 12(1), 76-79.
Dore, Alexandre; Lihoreau, Mathieu; Henry, Dominique & Aubert, Hervé
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‘A quoi pensent les abeilles?’, Humensciences 2022
M. Lihoreau
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‘Suivi d’insectes volants à l’aide de radars à ondes millimétriques’, presented at the XXIIèmes Journées Nationales Microondes, Limoges, France, 7-10 June 2022
A. Dore, D. Henry, M. Lihoreau & H. Aubert
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3D Tracking of Small Moving Targets in Cluttered Environment from the Isolines Processing of Millimeter-wave Radar Images. 2023 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC-URSI Radio Science Meeting (USNC-URSI). IEEE.
Dedic, E.; Djilani, A. Hadj; Henry, D.; Lihoreau, M. & Aubert, H.
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Modeling bee movement shows how a perceptual masking effect can influence flower discovery. PLOS Computational Biology, 19(3), e1010558.
Morán, Ana; Lihoreau, Mathieu; Pérez-Escudero, Alfonso & Gautrais, Jacques
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‘Views from above – Exploring the influence of flight altitude in bumblebees’, presented at Behaviour 2023, Bielefeld, Germany
A. Sonntag, M. Lihoreau, M. Egelhaaf & O. Bertrand
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‘Views from above – Exploring the influence of flight altitude in bumblebees’, presented at the 115th Meeting of the German Zoological Society, Sep. 2023. Kasel, Germany
A. Sonntag, M. Lihoreau, M. Egelhaaf & O. Bertrand
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‘What do bees think about?’, John Hopkins 2024
M. Lihoreau
