A Drone-based Application for Scouting Halyomorpha halys Bugs in Orchards with Multifunctional Nets
Francesco Betti Sorbelli, Federico Corò, Sajal K. Das, Emanuele Di Bella, Lara Maistrello, Lorenzo Palazzetti, Cristina M. Pinotti
Abstract
In this work, we consider the problem of using a drone to collect information within orchards in order to scout insect pests, i.e., the stink bug Halyomorpha halys. An orchard can be modeled as an aisle-graph, which is a regular and constrained data structure formed by consecutive aisles where trees are arranged in a straight line. For monitoring the presence of bugs, a drone flies close to the trees and takes videos and/or pictures that will be analyzed offline. As the drone’s energy is limited, only a subset of locations in the orchard can be visited with a fully charged battery. Those places that are most likely to be infested should be selected to promptly detect the pest. We implemented the proposed approach on a DJI drone and evaluated its performance in the real-world environment.