Possibility of monitoring D.v. virgifera flight by processing image of phero-traps using Raspberry Pi based devices

Abstract

Necessity for seasonal monitoring of economically most important pests in different crops, increase input costs of their surveillance. In maize fields, Western corn rootworm - WCR (Diabrotica virgifera sp. virgifera) is economically the most important species and presents a limiting factor for production of maize in continuous cultivation. Its occurrence is usually monitored with pheromone traps. However, as previously mentioned they are time and money consuming due to constant need for field inspections. Since in research projects, finances predefined for weekly inspection of traps are most often non-eligible, there is a need for developing a novel approach for pest monitoring. The use of IT technologies along with commercially available pheromone traps could provide precise information about the situation in traps without frequent field inspections. Also, they are easy to maintain, manipulate and require minimum costs. This work aimed to assess the potential use and the precision of a sensor device with camera, in monitoring the WCR flight on pheromone traps. Sensor device equipped with small camera can capture images of a pheromone trap sticky base and transfer them to a remote server for review, storage and analysis. The main idea in this paper is to present a system that uses a method based on analysis of the image variations of the pheromone pest traps, performed on devices placed in their vicinity which means that sending every image to the server is avoided. In this way, information about the variations in pheromone traps can be found in one location without unnecessarily sending the same images to the server. The obtained results indicate that the proposed method for monitoring the variations of the number of caught specimens on sticky surfaces of pheromone traps, based on the variations of the dark surface on the images, can be a reliable tool in further work.

Neophodnost sezonskog monitoringa ekonomski najznačajnih štetočina u različitim usevima uzrokuje rast ulaznih troškova u poslovima nadzora njihove pojave. U usevu kukuruza, kukuruzna zlatica (Diabrotica virgifera sp. virgifera) je ekonomski najznačajnija štetočina i predstavlja ograničavajući faktor proizvodnje u monokulturi. Brojnost i pojava ove vrste se najčešće prati feromonskim klopkama. Međutim, kao što je napomenuto, njihova primena iziskuje dosta vremena i novca, usled konstantne potrebe za poljskim osmatranjima i obilascima klopki. U istraživačkim projektima sredstva predviđena za nedeljne preglede klopki su veoma često neprihvatljiv deo budžeta, što nameće potebu za razvojem novog pristupa monitoringu štetočina. Upotreba IT tehnologija uporedo sa komercijalno dostupnim feromonskim klopkama omogućava precizne informacije o stanju na klopkama, uz manje terenskih izlazaka, jednostavnost i niske troškove održavanja i manipulacije. Cilja rada je bio procena mogućnosti upotrebe i preciznosti senzorskih uređaja sa kamerom u monitoringu leta kukuruzne zlatice na fero-klopkama. Pomoću senzorskih uređaja opremljenih malim kamerama mogu se snimiti slike na mestu feromonskih klopki i proslediti do udaljenog servera za pregled, skladištenje i analizu. Ideja u ovom radu je prikaz sistema koji koristi metodu promene zauzetosti površine prilikom analize slike koja se izvršava na uređaju posredniku postavljenog pre servera. Na taj način se informacije o promeni brojnosti insekata u klopci mogu saznati na jednom lokalitetu bez nepotrebnog slanja istovetnih slika na server. Dobijeni rezultati ukazuju da se predloženi metod praćenja promene brojnosti na bazi promene površine prisustva tamnih polja (uhvaćenih insekata na lepljivoj površini feromonske klopke) može koristiti kao pouzdan alat u daljem radu.