Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute recently developed an autonomous robot for use in controlling the spread of spotted lanternflies.
Lanternflies are invasive insects that feed on a wide range of economically important crops including apples, grapes, hops, walnuts and many different hardwoods.
In Pennsylvania, the insects have the potential to cost the economy $300 million annually.
“Currently, spotted lanternflies are concentrated in the eastern portion of the nation, but they are predicted to spread to the whole country,” Carolyn Alex, an undergraduate researcher, said. “By investing in this issue now, we will be saving higher costs in the future.”
The autonomous robot, TartanPest, uses an all-electric tractor, a robotic arm and computer vision to detect and destroy spotted lanternfly egg masses in fields and forests. It uses a deep learning model refined on an augmented image data created from 700 images of spotted lanternfly egg masses to identify masses and scrape them off surfaces.
Egg masses contain 30 to 50 eggs and generally are found on trees, rocks, outdoor furniture and rusty metal surfaces. The eggs are laid in the fall and hatch in the spring.
TartanPest could be used to lower the chemical pollution of crops and increase efficiency on farms.