SBIR Phase I: Precision Lasers for Controlling a Major Agricultural Parasite

SBIR 第一阶段：用于控制主要农业寄生虫的精密激光器

• 批准号: 2026082
• 负责人: Hailey Scofield
• 金额: $ 25.6万
• 依托单位: COMBPLEX, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-08-01 至 2022-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2026082&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Precision; Lasers; Controlling

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to develop and validate a novel solution for specific pests affecting honey bees. Beekeepers around the globe consistently cite Varroa mites as a leading cause of honey bee colony loss and, in the United States, attribute to these mites an estimated $2 B in agricultural damages every year. Since arriving in the U.S. in the late 1980s, Varroa mites have developed resistance to most known chemical pesticides, leaving beekeepers with few treatment options that do not also negatively impact the colony or contaminate honey. This project will develop a year-round, automatic, and chemical-free method for controlling Varroa mites, effectively mitigating the existing honey bee decline and resolving the chief problem facing beekeepers across North America and Europe, improving global food and agriculture supplies. The intellectual merit of this project is the interdisciplinary application of selective photothermolysis technology combined with in-depth understanding of honey bee behavior to remotely detect and destroy a harmful apicultural pest. This project is investigating the field efficacy and cost effectiveness of employing a computer vision-driven identification algorithm to identify the Varroa mite, a serious honey bee parasite, and then introduce a high-power laser burst to immediately destroy the mite while it remains attached to the infested bee but without harming the host. The research objectives include quantifying the negative effect on mite population growth during the growing season and determining the number of laser/detector devices required to maintain permanent year-round control of Varroa mites in a standard colony.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.

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）I阶段项目旨在为影响蜜蜂的特定害虫开发和验证一种新颖的解决方案。 全球养蜂人一直将瓦罗螨（Varroa Mites）作为蜜蜂殖民地丧失的主要原因，在美国，每年将估计的农业损害估计估计造成2 b美元的农业损失。自1980年代后期到达美国以来，Varroa Mites已经对大多数已知的化学农药产生了抵抗力，养蜂人几乎没有治疗选择，不会对菌落或污染蜂蜜产生负面影响。该项目将开发一种全年，自动和无化学方法来控制瓦罗螨的方法，有效地减轻现有的蜜蜂下降，并解决北美和欧洲养蜂人面临的主要问题，从而改善了全球粮食和农业供应。该项目的智力优点是选择性光热技术的跨学科应用，并深入了解蜂蜜蜜蜂行为，以远程检测和破坏有害的源自害虫。该项目正在研究采用计算机视觉驱动的识别算法来识别Varroa螨，一种严重的蜂蜜蜜蜂寄生虫，然后引入高功率激光爆发以立即销毁螨虫，而在不损害主人的情况下仍将其附着时立即销毁螨虫，但要立即销毁螨虫。研究目标包括量化生长季节对螨虫人口增长的负面影响，并确定在标准殖民地中维持对Varroa螨的永久性控制所需的激光/探测器设备的数量。这项奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过评估该基金会的知识分子优点和广泛的影响来评估NSF的法定任务，并被视为值得进行的支持。