To combat infestations on farms and increase production, researchers at UT Arlington are building tiny sensors that can track insect movement.
In collaboration with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, computer science Professor Gautam Das and electrical engineering Professor Wei-Jen Lee are developing a sensor that can be attached to bugs and relay information about their coordinates and movements to a base station.
“Insects can positively or negatively affect agricultural quality and production,” Dr. Lee says. “Understanding their behavior is an important step to taking advantage of their benefits and mitigating damages. Applying advanced sensor technologies and artificial intelligence will have an impact on the future development of agriculture.”
Dr. Das is building the sensor, while Lee is creating a data acquisition system for the insects that uses multiple readers to pinpoint their locations. Once they gather the data, Das and Jianzhong Su, mathematics professor and chair, will analyze it to uncover any patterns. The team is also collaborating with Wendy Shen from the University of Central Florida on the project.
