New research from Oregon State University uses AI-powered cameras to monitor and collect data on bumblebees.
The OSU research team has developed an AI tool that tracks insects of interest, which allows them to monitor bumblebees more accurately than before. When tested against human volunteers, researchers say the AI was found to be more accurate at catching images with bees.
Tim Warren is an Assistant Professor of Horticulture at OSU. He said previous techniques involved sending researchers out to capture bees with a net to collect data, which is labor intensive, or setting traps which are often deadly to insects.
“There's an emerging interest in developing more robust ways to monitor bumblebees because some species are threatened and endangered, but the data to know where those species are and at what numbers there are is not good,” Warren said.
This new method allows them to monitor bees for longer periods of time and with more precision. The AI works, as Warren put it, “an automated insect detector,” allowing the camera to save power when there are no insects on the sensor. It also identifies insects of interest so that researchers do not have to pick through images by hand.
Warren wishes to specifically target species such as the Western bumblebee, a species that has been petitioned to be classified as endangered due to its population decline. He hopes to move their research from the Willamette Valley into higher elevation areas where the Western bumblebee is more likely to be found.
The team hopes to use this technology and data to more accurately define where endangered species are and which areas need to be protected, as well as to make sure resources are not being diverted where they are not needed.
"It's an obvious concern if threatened or vulnerable species are not protected in a particular location, but it's also a concern if overly conservative estimates or bad data suggest that species might be somewhere where they're not, because in that case it risks inadvertently restricting land use,” Warren said.
