When: June 15, 2023
Where: University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Research Theme:
Learning and Prediction
DART Faculty participants:
Khoa Luu, UAF
DART Graduate Student participants:
Thanh-Dat Truong, UAF
Researchers at the University of Arkansas have developed a prototype of an insect trap that can help farmers monitor and identify potential pests more efficiently in order to protect valuable crops. The trap captures footage of insects and uses artificial intelligence to identify them and send real-time data back to farmers. This eliminates the need for manual monitoring, allowing farmers to make decisions on the fly and take the appropriate measures to counteract potential damage.
Widespread use of pesticides is largely responsible for dwindling populations of pollinators and “good bugs” across the world and currently available systems to monitor pests don’t enable real-time intervention. Often, by the time an intervention takes place, it may be too late to save the crop.
This development has the potential to impact numerous fields, including agriculture, ecology, and others. The innovation will enable live monitoring of crops and will ultimately reduce crop destruction and benefit both pollinators and farmers.