robotindex Sunflower Labs (The Bee + Hive)
An autonomous residential drone-in-a-box security system: ground sensors ("Sunflowers") detect motion/vibration and trigger a fully autonomous drone ("Bee") to launch from its dock ("Hive"), fly to investigate, and stream live video — no pilot needed.
sunflower-labs.com →
Image: Sunflower Labs (official)
Specs
Camera
1920×1080 @ 25fps50°(v)/100°(h) FOV; optional thermal on newer hardware
Flight
Fully autonomousGPS/RTK-guided, no pilot input needed
Flight Time
~15 min+ 5 min reserve; ~1:2 recharge ratio
Obstacle Avoidance
Ultrasonicrated to 6m
Range
Up to 600mfrom the Hive dock
Wind Tolerance
9 m/s sustained14 m/s gusts
Hive Requirements
110/220V power+ wired ~6Mbps internet
Sensor Range
~20 ft/unitper "Sunflower" ground sensor
Bee Weight
1.56 kgbattery included; sunflower-labs.com/specs
Bee Dimensions
28 × 28 × 21 cmbody only; 48 × 48 × 21 cm with propeller guards
Hive Weight
35 kgdock unit; sunflower-labs.com/specs
Hive Dimensions
86 × 80 × 80 cmclosed; 98 × 80 × 63 cm when open
Subscription
None confirmedonly a usage-based ~$4–7/hr flight-operating cost is documented; no separate cloud-storage subscription found
Reference Price
Originally launched in 2020 at $9,950 hardware plus a $999 deposit. Pricing is now quote-based through an online property-configuration tool rather than a fixed number, with reported ongoing operating costs of roughly $4–7 per hour of active drone flight, plus an 8–12 week installation process — reflecting its positioning as a premium, estate-scale system rather than an off-the-shelf consumer product.
Insights
As of November 2025, Sunflower Labs holds a nationwide, performance-based FAA waiver covering roughly 99% of the US that permits beyond-visual-line-of-sight flight, operation over people and vehicles, and low-visibility flight without needing per-site approval — a significant upgrade from the case-by-case Part 107 waivers the system previously required. In May 2026, Sunflower Labs received a further FAA approval letting a single operator control up to six autonomous drones at once, and it raised a $16M Series B (led by Sequoia) to scale into industrial and commercial sites — rail yards, factories, data centers — alongside its original residential product; Argentina's largest security provider, Securion, is expanding a deployment for corporate clients from 2 drones to 40. The company's own current site still lists and sells the residential system this entry covers, so this is best read as Sunflower Labs broadening into enterprise/industrial customers rather than exiting the home market.
Firmware & Community
Closed platform
Sunflower Labs has not released a public SDK, firmware repo, or developer API for The Bee + Hive. Not currently listed in Builds & Mods.
Verified against Sunflower Labs' own official site (sunflower-labs.com, including its dedicated industrial page) and funding/regulatory press releases (BusinessWire, UASweekly, AUVSI; 2020, 2025, and May 2026), plus independent hands-on coverage from TechCrunch and Engadget. This is an actively shipping, expanding product — Sunflower Labs reported more than doubling its customer base and 10x-ing autonomous patrol volume in the year before its November 2025 raise, with deployments across North America, Europe, Japan, Australia, and Argentina — not a demo-only pilot phase, despite the "New & Pending" tag reflecting that it hasn't yet been given its own detailed comparison against mainstream consumer security products in this catalog. Sunflower Labs is increasingly emphasizing industrial and commercial deployments (rail yards, factories, data centers, corporate security scaling to dozens of drones per site) alongside its original residential product; its own site still markets and sells to homeowners as of this writing, so a "moved to commercial/industrial instead of home" framing is not fully supported — it reads as an added focus, not a replacement.