Drone technology and artificial intelligence (AI) will be deployed by a leading Co. Cork-based institute, which is partnering with Teagasc, to monitor a highly invasive insect species as part of a new European research project.
Tyndall National Institute and Teagasc have teamed up to monitor and “sustainably manage” the Halyomorpha halys – which is more commonly known as the “brown marmorated stink bug”.
The insect, which has been detected in Europe and the UK since 2018, can damage significant amounts of tree fruit crops and some vegetable and arable crops.
The brown marmorated stink bugs can also hibernate in buildings and emit a foul odour.
The bug was first seen in Italy in 2012 and caused “significant economic losses” within just two years.
According to Brendan O’Flynn, head of group for the wireless sensor networks research group at Tyndall, the Cork institute will work closely along with Teagasc and other European partners including Imec, the Italian Universities in Perugia and Modena and the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany, to develop new “impactful technologies” as part of the research project called HALY.ID.
“As the world’s population grows, food security is becoming increasingly important.
“We are proud to collaborate with international partners to develop a smart sensing system, ensuring our European orchards continue to provide high-quality food produce,” O’Flynn said.
Up to now, farmers have traditionally used pheromone-loaded sticky traps to monitor a variety of insect pest species, but they have to manually check these traps periodically, to estimate the type and quantity of the insect.
This is a very time-consuming and labour-intensive task and can require a high level of entomological expertise.
Insect monitoring
But the new HALY.ID project aims to completely “automate” the insect monitoring process by employing drone technology, image analysis, and a low-cost and low-power microcontroller unit (MCU) device that will deliver all the data using AI.
The system, which also uses an algorithm to monitor and classify invasive insects, is a low-power battery device that is used during growing seasons. The images are also taken at night to control light intensity and minimise other sources of illumination.
This newly developed automated insect monitoring tool is now in place in an Italian orchard.
Michael Gaffney, entomologist and senior research officer, Teagasc said: “Monitoring for pest and diseases is a fundamental first step in the successful implementation of integrated pest management strategies in commercial horticultural production.
“Developing technologies that automate the detection of harmful pests, reducing the time and labour input required, while also reducing the gap between monitoring events to a single day, will hopefully assist growers in detecting the pest early in the spring when the pest numbers are low, where crop protection interventions are most effective.”