Date of Award
Summer 2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Electrical and Computer Engineering
First Advisor
Medeiros, Henry
Second Advisor
Tabb, Amy
Third Advisor
Ababei, Cristinel
Abstract
A key aspect to controlling and reducing the effects invasive insect species have on agriculture is to obtain knowledge about the migration patterns of these species. Current state-of-the-art methods of studying these migration patterns involve a mark-release-recapture technique, in which insects are released after being marked and researchers attempt to recapture them later. However, this approach involves a human researcher manually searching for these insects in large fields and results in very low recapture rates. This thesis proposes an automated system for detecting released insects using an unmanned aerial vehicle. Our system utilizes ultraviolet lighting technology, digital cameras, and lightweight computer vision algorithms to more quickly and accurately detect insects compared to the state of the art. The efficiency and accuracy that this system provides will allow for a more comprehensive understanding of invasive insect species migration patterns. Our experimental results demonstrate that our system can detect real target insects in field conditions with high precision and recall rates. Additionally, insect GPS coordinates can be localized using an image reprojection algorithm, resulting in a generated map of the test field with insect locations.