Field pest monitoring and forecasting system for pest control

Abstract

Insect pest is an essential factor affecting crop yield, and the effect of pest control depends on the timeliness and accuracy of pest forecasting. The traditional method forecasts pest outbreaks by manually observing (capturing), identifying, and counting insects, which is very time-consuming and laborious. Therefore, developing a method that can more timely and accurately identify insects and obtain insect information. This study designed an image acquisition device that can quickly collect real-time photos of phototactic insects. A pest identification model was established based on a deep learning algorithm. In addition, a model update strategy and a pest outbreak warning method based on the identification results were proposed. Insect images were processed to establish the identification model by removing the background; a laboratory image collection test verified the feasibility. The results showed that the proportion of images with the background completely removed was 90.2%. Dataset 1 was obtained using reared target insects, and the identification accuracy of the ResNet V2 model on the test set was 96%. Furthermore, Dataset 2 was obtained in the cotton field using a designed field device. In exploring the model update strategy, firstly, the T_ResNet V2 model was trained with Dataset 2 using transfer learning based on the ResNet V2 model; its identification accuracy on the test set was 84.6%. Secondly, after reasonably mixing the indoor and field datasets, the SM_ResNet V2 model had an identification accuracy of 85.7%. The cotton pest image acquisition, transmission, and automatic identification system provide a good tool for accurately forecasting pest outbreaks in cotton fields.