- What will it do?
- Who’s done what beforehand?
- What sources will you use?
- What will you design?
- What materials and components will be used?
- Where will come from?
- How much will they cost?
- What parts and systems will be made?
- What processes will be used?
- What questions need to be answered?
- How will it be evaluated?
What will it do?
The objective of my final project is to monitor the population of insects in commercial greenhouses. For this purpose the project will count insects to allow the users to take decision on control measures. Key important points is the time of appearance of the pest and the dynamic tracking of their numbers. This in the context of appropriate use of control methods. The project components is a camera and weather sensor and a sever to centralize all of the information.
Who’s done what beforehand?
Similar Projects in the FabAcademy
While looking at the Fab Academy documentation today(27.01.2025) I discovered that there was a student (Amal Saidani) in 2020 who had develop a intelligent pest trap.
https://fabacademy.org/2020/labs/kamplintfort/students/amal-saidani/assignments/week20/
Summary:
Is a box that has some holes in the walls. Inside the wall you can see a pheromone impregnated object to attract moths. There is a camera inside the box. It would seem that the camera is guarded and extended or retracted if a picture is needed, my guess is to protect the camera from insect scales? Also the camera is used by a phone app.
Differences:
- In this design the camera is mobile in mine is not.
- There is no insect counting.
- The sticky traps is housed in walls mine will be exposed.
Cool points from this design:
I think the idea of camera protection is important in order to avoid having to clean the camera often. I think we could look at the electronics of how the camera and sensor are operated.
Similar Projects in Academia
Near Infra read sensors
Summary:
The sensor illuminates an air volume and records the backscattered light from insects that fly through the measurement volume. Discrete insect observations are automatically extracted from the continuous raw data flow and transmitted over a cellular connection to a database in the cloud… features such as the wingbeat frequency, body-wing ratio, and melanisation factor are computed and used to predict the insect classification down to species.(Rydhmer et al. 2022)
Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-06439-6
Differences:
This is completely different to what I am proposing as it uses near infra red to infer insect counts and classification.
Cool points from this design:
My guess is that detection is not affected by environmental light conditions as it would be in object detection.
Similar Projects in Industry
Here you can see a device constructed by a company:
Summary
Their device uses is a camera that is pointed into a extended arm that holds a sticky card. The image is processed by object detection algorithm. There is also a solar panel that recharges the batteries.
Differences:
They have a solar panel which I have not in mine. The sticky card is away from the body and held by an arm while in mine is meant to be a part of the main body. The other difference is that they have one sticky card that needs to be changed manually and I proposed a roll of tape. The position of the camera is also different.
Cool points from this design:
Powered by solar energy. The design seems stylish as well. Other cool solutions from the same company https://www.pats-drones.com
What sources will you use?
The components that are not fabricated will be sourced from Amazon and Aliexpress
What will you design?
For the structure I will design two PLA enclosures, one that houses the components for the camera and climatic sensors and another that houses all the components for the server. And within these structures enclosures for the electronics to be used.
PCB’s for motor actuation and sensors integration
scripts for sending and receiving of information between three subsystems i.e. :
- Xiao Sensor,
- Xiao Server,
- and computer
silicone buttons
wiring of between different electronic components and
product packaging.
What materials and components will be used?
In terms of materials I will be using PLA plastic and electronic components that can be found below:
What parts and systems will be made?
Mechanincal system
This system features a DC motor integrated with three gears, all mounted on a fixed platform. The platform itself can slide laterally, guided by a lever mechanism that extends to the left wall of the structure for convenient user access. By moving the lever from one side to the other, the user can control the rolling direction, engaging the motor with either of two gears responsible for winding or unwinding the tape. The system also includes dedicated roll holders for tape management, as well as two tensioners to ensure consistent tape tension throughout operation.
Electronic system
The electronic system consists of a server module and a sensor subsystem. The sensor subsystem is built around a Xiao Sense (ESP32), which integrates a camera and interfaces with a DHT11 temperature and humidity sensor. The original OV2046 camera has been replaced with a wide-angle variant from the same camera family to enhance the field of view. The sensor PCB is connected to an auxiliary PCB featuring two control buttons and another PCB hosting a TB6612FNG motor half bridge driver. Additionally, it includes an LED for illuminating the tape. The server module is equipped with an OLED display and an SD card reader for storing captured images. The system will be powered by a 9V-battery cell and uses as well a voltage reductor to feed power to the Xiao.
Communications
Communication between the sensor and the server is established via Wi-Fi, with both modules equipped with antennas to ensure reliable wireless connectivity.
Processes Used
CAD design Project design for both the server and sensor modules where done in Fusion 360.
Subtracting fabrication process
I included substractive production by milling a block of wax to cast silicon buttons.
Additive fabrication process
The project includes 3D printing to build the cases of both the sensor and server.
Electronic design
I used Kicad for electronic design I designed the following boards:
- two button boards
- one sensor board
- one server board
- one half bridge motor board
Interphasing and Programming
I have developed an interactive dashboard using the Shiny package in R, designed to receive images from the Xiao server and process them using a YOLO-trained algorithm for pest detection. The system continuously tracks and displays cumulative pest counts over time. All embedded programming on the Xiao’s devices has been implemented in MicroPython.
What questions need to be answered?
The questions that needed to be answered were:
- What networking mechanism will be used to exchange
images between the two Xiao boards and a local computer?
- How will the user insert and remove the rolls of
tape?
- What mechanism will allow the user to unroll the
tape to extract the used portion?
- How will the images be processed to detect the
presence of pests?
- How will the user dynamically monitor pest densities over time?
- What is the optimal camera position on the structure, and where is the most convenient place to mount it?
- How to control the tension of the roll so the tape keeps flat.
How will it be evaluated?
The project will be evaluated on the following criteria:
- Rolls and unrolling of the tape performs adequatelly,
- Images and temperature data are transferred adequately between subsystems,
- Housing of products is adequate,
- Changing of tape rolls is not dificult.