ITI uses artificial intelligence to stop the tiger mosquito

VALENCIA, 15 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

ITI, a technological center specialized in ICT, is developing 'MoTIA2', a project that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) to stop the tiger mosquito.

SIT has become an expanding practice for the biological control of these pests. It involves mass breeding, within an insect biofactory. Once raised in the biofactory, the males -- which do not bite people -- are sterilized and released into the environment. When mating between sterile males and wild females occurs, the insect population is reduced.

This technique avoids the use of pesticides, making it an environmentally friendly method. The breeding volume within the biofactory is a determining factor when it comes to extending the control program to large geographical areas, as explained by ITI in a statement.

In this context, 'MoTIA2' uses AI to improve its efficiency. The results of the project, financed by IVACE and FEDER funds, may be relevant for different economic and social sectors. On the one hand, public health, since it works to solve several of the bottlenecks in the mass rearing process and can make the SIT viable to reduce populations of insects that transmit diseases such as dengue or chikungunya.

The tourism sector is also directly influenced, since the outbreak of diseases is one of the criteria that tourists take into account when selecting a destination, the technological institute has assured.

After studying the use of vision and audio AI algorithms for the application of SIT in the first phase of this project, 'MoTIA2' continues with this line of work, improving these algorithms and focusing on the study of the tiger mosquito.

The objectives are focused on developing and implementing new algorithms aimed at improving the classification and counting of pupae, that is, the state prior to becoming mosquitoes; improve hearing algorithms for detecting female mosquitoes in release containers and optimizing vision algorithms to automatically detect insects in field trap images.

The main researcher of the MoTIA2 project at ITI. AI techniques applied to biofactories, Pedro Zuccarello, has highlighted that "the knowledge acquired will favor sectors such as agriculture or industry, in which both monitoring, counting and classification of high-speed moving objects such as anomaly detection and quality control by sound".

The project is supported by a number of different companies that have shown interest in collaborating with ITI throughout all phases.