SBIR Phase II: Smart Sensor for Precision Agriculture

This SBIR Phase II project will deploy an innovative technology used in academia into a cost-effective solution for better precision and efficiency in agricultural practices. The envisioned product is a tool for ordinary farmers to increase their production and reduce unnecessary and unpredictable costs, reducing negative impacts on the environment and leading to higher quality food on the table. By converting once complicated, slow, inaccurate practices of insect identification to automated and highly accurate and in real time, this technology will be a part of the automation and data driven industrialization wave transforming the agricultural sector. The quick reaction to pest infestation will allow farmers to better target their response, ultimately making farming more efficient and sustainable. Effective pest control in agriculture is imperative for growers to prevent major crop loss. Certain insect pests are responsible for such significant crop damage which provokes growers to invest in expensive and time-consuming measures to minimize pest effects. The reaction of the grower to the pest is time-sensitive; the timing of the treatment application will directly determine its effectiveness. The proposed technology is an innovative ground-based sensor system that detects plurality of airborne pests in real-time along with their geolocation information. It has capabilities for differentiation and identification of different insect species detected in flight. The instantaneous knowledge of the location of the pest allows for a targeted spray rather than spraying an entire field. Targeted sprays reduce unnecessary spraying and promote more sustainable pest treatment practices. The low-cost sensor that is adequately accurate finally places growers a few steps ahead of the problem, leading them to make wiser treatment decisions such as choosing the time of day to avoid harming beneficial pests and for mitigating drift. The sensor replaces and completely automates the current methods for monitoring insect activity in the crop field, with much better efficiency. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.