Abstract
Machine vision has demonstrated its usefulness in the livestock industry in terms of improving welfare in such areas as lameness detection and body condition scoring in dairy cattle. In this article, we present some promising results of applying state of the art object detection and classification techniques to insects, specifically Black Soldier Fly (BSF) and the domestic cricket, with the view of enabling automated processing for insect farming. We also present the low-cost “Insecto” Internet of Things (IoT) device, which provides environmental condition monitoring for temperature, humidity, CO2, air pressure, and volatile organic compound levels together with high resolution image capture. We show that we are able to accurately count and measure size of BSF larvae and also classify the sex of domestic crickets by detecting the presence of the ovipositor. These early results point to future work for enabling automation in the selection of desirable phenotypes for subsequent generations and for providing early alerts should environmental conditions deviate from desired values.
Highlights
Insects are currently a component in the diets of two billion people around the world (1) and 2,111 known insect species have been recorded as being consumed by people (2)
This section is broken into two subsections describing our work using machine vision on Black Soldier Fly (BSF) and domestic crickets (Acheta domesticus), the first to measure the size of BSF larvae, the second to count and sex crickets
We present the results from our pilot studies for measuring the size of BSF larvae, distinguishing whether the larva is best suited to breeding or consumption, as well as counting and sexing crickets
Summary
Insects are currently a component in the diets of two billion people around the world (1) and 2,111 known insect species have been recorded as being consumed by people (2). Insects such as crickets and BSF, like other types of arthropod, are remarkably efficient in fixing biomass that is highly protein rich; they are hardy and easy to breed (3), require little or no processing before consuming, and they have a relatively short growth cycle. This makes them attractive for breeding in regions of the world which suffer from food insecurity problems that affect food supplies for both livestock and human consumption as well as offering potential alternative protein sources for livestock feed via waste processing in mode developed areas. They are able to consume low-grade organic waste and convert it into usable bio-products such as animal protein and lipids (4), which could feed livestock animals, such as fish, poultry, and pigs
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