SBIR Phase II: Infrared Image Analysis to Assess Beehive Health for Crop Pollination

SBIR 第二阶段：红外图像分析评估作物授粉蜂箱的健康状况

• 批准号: 1926806
• 负责人: Ellie Symes
• 金额: $ 75万
• 依托单位: The Bee Corp
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-10-01 至 2024-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1926806&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Infrared; Image

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project safeguards domestic food supply by improving honeybee health. Honeybees pollinate 1/3 of domestic food supply and contribute more than $15 billion to the U.S. economy. Although honeybee populations are at a 20-year high in the U.S., the cost to keep them alive is at its historical peak. This project reduces labor costs for commercial beekeepers, allowing them to devote more time to restoring hives that show signs of poor health and infestation. The product can be used to optimize hive placement, allowing growers to pollinate using the smallest number of hives. As growers' demand for hives decreases, the number of hives shipped across the country to pollinate crops will be reduced, resulting in a more robust stock of commercial honeybees.This proposed project expands on research developed in Phase I to grow the product from its first version into a scalable product, which includes predictive model improvements, additional data collection, mobile app development and additional field testing. A major component of the Phase II grant will be improving accuracy and performance of the hive strength model. Additional data collection will be important in Phase II to improve the model to perform well in a wider range of ambient conditions. By the end of Phase II, full automation of the software allows for the product to be used at all times. A major component of the Phase II work will be the development of a web-based mobile application that can take infrared pictures using smartphone camera attachments, upload images automatically to a database, and provide real time analytics on the images. This project is a breakthrough in the crop pollination space using infrared imagery that can be adapted to improve thermodynamic insights across many verticals.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这项小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的更广泛影响是通过改善蜜蜂健康来保障国内食品供应。蜜蜂为三分之一的国内食物供应授粉，为美国经济贡献了超过150亿美元。尽管美国的蜜蜂数量达到了20年来的最高水平，但维持它们生存的成本却达到了历史最高水平。该项目降低了商业养蜂人的劳动力成本，使他们能够投入更多的时间来修复出现健康状况不佳和虫害迹象的蜂箱。该产品可用于优化蜂箱位置，允许种植者使用最少数量的蜂箱授粉。随着种植者对蜂箱的需求减少，运往全国各地为作物授粉的蜂箱数量将减少，从而使商业蜜蜂的库存更加强劲。该项目扩展了第一阶段的研究，将产品从第一个版本发展为可扩展的产品，其中包括预测模型改进、额外的数据收集、移动应用程序开发和额外的现场测试。第二阶段拨款的一个主要组成部分将是提高蜂箱强度模型的准确性和性能。在第二阶段，额外的数据收集将非常重要，以改进模型，使其在更广泛的环境条件下表现良好。在第二阶段结束时，软件的完全自动化使产品可以随时使用。第二阶段工作的一个主要组成部分将是开发一个基于网络的移动应用程序，该应用程序可以使用智能手机相机附件拍摄红外照片，自动将图像上传到数据库，并提供对图像的实时分析。这个项目是利用红外图像在作物授粉领域的一个突破，它可以在许多垂直领域改进热力学洞察力。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。