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Laser device for neutralizing - mosquitoes

Low-cost device for control mosquitoes, weeds, pest etc.

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Hi, I am Ildar, an electronic researcher. This is an open-source home project made in my spare time without any external funding. But the project aroused interest, so I think it's worth continuing.
I developed a device for remote monitoring of mosquitoes (weeds, pests, etc) and their neutralization with powerful laser and machine vision. The developed device is controlled by a single-board computer (Jetson Nano or RaspberryPi) based on the neural network. Looks like a low-cost device can be used to kill mosquitoes, weeds, pests, etc., with a powerful laser and these directions have good prospects.
https://github.com/Ildaron/Laser_control

The last paper - "Selective neutralisation and deterring of cockroaches with laser automated by machine vision "
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00305316.2022.2121777
Sorry YouTube deleted my video with performance

To detect x,y coordinates initially I used Haar cascades in RaspberryPI. After that yolov4-tiny in Jetson nano. For Y coordinates - stereo vision in OpenCV.
Calculation of necessary value for the angle of mirrors.
RaspberryPI/JetsonNano by SPI sends a command for galvanometer via DAC mcp4922. Electrical scheme (here). From mcp4922 bipolar analog signal go-to amplifier. Finally, we have -12 and + 12 V for the control positions of the mirrors.

The principle of operation  

Single board computer to processes the digital signal from the camera and determines the positioning of the object, and transmits the digital signal to the analog display - 3, where digital-to-analog converts the signal to the range of 0-5V. Using a board with an operational amplifier, we get a bipolar voltage, from which the boards with the motor driver for the galvanometer are powered - 4, from where the signal goes to galvanometers -7. The galvanometer uses mirrors to change the direction of the laser - 6. The system is powered by the power supply - 5. Cameras 2  determine the distance to the object. The camera detects mosquitoes and transmits data to the galvanometer, which sets the mirrors in the correct position, and then the laser turns on.  

 Don't use the power laser!
The main limiting factor in the development of this technology is the danger of the laser may damage the eyes. The laser can enter a blood vessel and clog it, it can get into a blind spot where nerves from all over the eye go to the brain, you can burn out a line of "pixels" And then the damaged retina can begin to flake off, and this is the path to complete and irreversible loss of vision. This is dangerous because a person may not notice at the beginning of damage from a laser hit: there are no pain receptors there, the brain completes objects in damaged areas (remapping of dead pixels), and only when the damaged area becomes large enough person starts to notice that some objects not visible.
We can develop additional security systems, such as human detection, audio sensors, etc. But in any case, we are not able to make the installation 100% safe, since even a laser can be reflected and damage the eye of a person who is not in the field of view of the device and at a distant distance. Therefore, this technology should not be used at home. 
My strong recommendation - don't use the power laser! I recommend making a device that will track an object using a safe laser pointer.

Dimensions

1 - PI cameras, 2 - galvanometer, 3 - Jetson nano, 4 - adjusting the position to the object, 5 - laser device, 6 - power supply, 7 - galvanometer driver boards, 8 - analog conversion boards

 Galvanometer setting 
In practice, the maximum deflection angle of the mirrors is set at the factory, but before use, it is necessary to check, for example, according to the documentation, our galvanometer had a step width of 30, but as it turned out we have only 2

 Maximum and minimum positions of galvanometer mirrors:   
 a - lower position - 350 for x mirror;   
 b - upper position - 550 for x mirror;   
 c - lower position - 00 for y mirror;   
 d - upper position - 250 for y mirror;  
 

Determining the coordinates of an object

X,Y - coordinate 

Z-coordinate 

We created GUI, source here


At the expense of computer vision, the position of the object in the X, Y plane is determined - based on which its ROI area is taken. Then I use stereo vision to compile a depth map and for a given ROI with the NumPy library tool - np.average we calculated the average value for the pixels of this area, which will allow us to calculate the distance to the object.  

You can find more detail in the published paper in preprint - Low-Cost Stereovision System (Disparity Map) For Few Dollars  

Determining the angle of the galvanometer mirror
angle of galvanometer...

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JPEG Image - 90.32 kB - 06/04/2022 at 19:00

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  • 1 × RaspberryPi
  • 2 × Picamera
  • 1 × Laser 1 W
  • 1 × power supply
  • 1 × Galvanometer

  • 1
    A warning!

    The main limiting factor in the development of this technology is the danger of the laser may damage the eyes. The laser can enter a blood vessel and clog it, it can get into a blind spot where nerves from all over the eye go to the brain, you can burn out a line of "pixels" And then the damaged retina can begin to flake off, and this is the path to complete and irreversible loss of vision. This is dangerous because a person may not notice at the beginning of damage from a laser hit: there are no pain receptors there, the brain completes objects in damaged areas (remapping of dead pixels), and only when the damaged area becomes large enough person starts to notice that some objects not visible. We can develop additional security systems, such as human detection, audio sensors, etc. But in any case, we are not able to make the installation 100% safe, since even a laser can be reflected and damage the eye of a person who is not in the field of view of the device and at a distant distance. Therefore, this technology should not be used at home. My strong recommendation - don't use the power laser! I recommend making a device that will track an object using a safe laser pointer.

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Discussions

Mr. Thulander wrote 05/07/2023 at 05:15 point

Pondering a bit on the safety of people nearby this device; Perhaps a (circular) microphone array together with camera could function as a form of safety? If the camera detects any large movement in its field of view it disables the diode, if it doesn't AND the array detects mosquito wings (quite distinct, with some variation between male/female and also species) then it can arm the laser?

If such an array doesn't give you enough accuracy perhaps replacing it with a LIDAR module? That would necessitate the running of further processing (essentially using the point map to discriminate objects of human size and generating an angular "no-fire" zone in order to always keep such objects inside those angles?

I've been following this with great interest, since this device if it's made sufficiently accurate, safe and effective could potentially see use in many different applications.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Thomas Hamain wrote 06/06/2022 at 21:54 point

To throw an idea here. You could use trajectory interpolation to anticipate the position of the insect. If the mosquitos have the same behavior as flies, by actively chasing them with a fly swapper, I found that they fly in patterns (repeating every 2-10 seconds). And once I determined it, I am ready to smash them by expecting approximatively where they should be :D Well, using math and applying it to small distances, with a fast enough camera like you seem to use, maybe you could increase the preciseness of your device by moving your laser a few cm ahead of the trajectory, and ZZIITTT, you got it. By interpolating, you are also getting the chance to blindly burn them. Because the galvo and processing power of those algorithms should be much faster than the FPS of the camera, you could acquire the target between FPS...

On a side note. There are some devices to eliminate parasites from salmons in big farms. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cql2jtjpDzE&ab_channel=EuropeanPatentOffice

  Are you sure? yes | no

Ildar Rakhmatulin wrote 06/06/2022 at 22:04 point

thank you so much! it will be good research! 

  Are you sure? yes | no

Chris Hayward wrote 06/04/2022 at 20:00 point

Per your github, I dont think you will be able to track mosquitos or flies with a thermal camera.  Just tested with a 640x480 flir Boson on flies.  Because they are at ambient temperature, they are invisible until their flight path takes them between the camera and a background that is either substantially warmer than ambient (the ceiling in my garage), or substantially colder than ambient (the sky).  Interestingly, honeybees do show up very well in thermal and look like small glowing embers.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Ildar Rakhmatulin wrote 06/04/2022 at 20:10 point

I will consider different options, it is also possible to use lighting to highlight them

  Are you sure? yes | no

Chris Hayward wrote 06/03/2022 at 15:44 point

The laser can be made extremely safe, even at high power outputs, if youre willing to aim it with something like a stewart platform instead of galvos.  If you fire the laser into the eyepiece of a small telescope or similar optical setup, the beam will leave the telescope with the same width as the objective lens.  The beam profile will be converging/diverging with only the focal area containing enough photonic flux to be dangerous.  Obviously, a 60mm diameter beam would require larger aiming mirrors and would be slower than galvos, but mosquitos are very slow flyers; a mirror mounted on a stewart platform or a pair of mirrors actuated by servos should still be fine.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Ildar Rakhmatulin wrote 06/04/2022 at 18:54 point

sounds great, thank you so much for your comments, I need time for consider your idea 

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Ildar Rakhmatulin wrote 06/01/2022 at 12:03 point

We can try light up the room to reflect the mosquito - and then use the library functions - OpenCV in range or haar cascades to detect the object. With a bright background, they will be detected without problems. This is for low-power single-board computers - Raspberry, Orange, Banana, etc. For jetson nano, we can use yolov4-tiny which, using the tkDNN library, is able to give 30-35 FPS

Research laser effect

Use a lower the laser power as much as possible. The laser should burn the wings of mosquitos but should be safe for the eyes. That is to do research on the topic of laser power, laser wavelength, and their efficiency for mosquitos. This is for safety, the lower the power, the better.

Remote control

Laser control on a stationary computer. The IP camera installed next to the laser only transmits video to the computer, and the computer already analyzes it on a powerful processor video card and transmits back coordinates for the laser via Wi-Fi. In this case, we can use very powerful computing processors.

PCB boards

Make the device completely on our electronic boards. It is a galvanometer for a laser show and changes positions 20,000 times per second, which is why there are such powerful and big drivers for motors. It is useful to make a small PCB board to change the position of the laser only 200 times per second. In finally, so to speak, the pocket version.

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