Investigating the Biological Impacts of Radio Spectrum Transmissions

Project Overview

The goal of this project is to measure the response of apis mellifera (the western honeybee) to Radio-Frequency Electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF). The paradigm we will use is to see if the conditioned response can be associated with RF-EMF fields. The students will help construct a specialized feeder with an RF-EMF generator in a tunnel the bees must pass though to get a sugar reward. The students will build a measurement apparatus to measure the field strength and direction for DC fields, as well as and characterize the frequency for AC fields, for bees passing through the tunnel. The students will use an existing magnetometer to measure these fields. A second related project seeks to measure bees' responses to these fields in terms to the time and position of them through the tunnel using the open Computer Vision Library.

About Our Members

Murtadha Aldeer
Ph.D. Candidate
WINLAB
Electrical and Computer Engineering

Zhenzhou(Tom) Qi
Graduate Student
Rutgers (UG), Cornell(G)
Electrical and Computer Engineering

Justin Yu
High School Student

Joseph Florentine
Undergraduate Student
Rutgers (UG)
Electrical and Computer Engineering

Project Objective

What we know:
*Bees use Earth’s magnetic field for navigation and orientation
*Explore if RF(Radio Frequencies) has any impact on the behaviors of the bees

What we have done so far:
*A Method to conduct the experiment
*A prototype for magnetic field sensing (using a magnetometer)
*Basic equipment design: camera, feeder pump

Week 1 Activities

*Study the work was done previously in this project
*Literature review on related papers
*​Presentation 01

Week 2 Activities

*Built a prototype to measure the magnetic field strength
*Developed an understanding of the functionalities for each pin in MSP430
*​Presentation 02

Week 3 Activities

*Make the PIP Tag collect the data and transmit them to a nearby computer
*Familiarize with Eagle software and went through tutorials to build simple projects
*​Presentation 03

Week 4 Activities

*Magnetometer sensor is being used by Prof. Rich Howard
*Prof. Rich Howard has completed the solar power unit
*Finished searching all the components needed for building the schematic design for PCB
*​Presentation 04

Week 5 Activities

*Professor Martin has deployed feeders in Hort Farm
*Walkthrough on small details of other components on the PCB board.
*​Presentation 05

Week 6 Activities

*The magnetometer is working as required
*Eagle Libraries added and the PCB schematic design updated
*​Presentation 06

Week 7 Activities

Reading Material