Last Updated: 24/03/2025
Development of malaria eradication methods using UAV aerial photography and AI image processing
Objectives
*Original title and text were machine translated from Japanese.
This project will develop an AI that will extract the location and characteristics (size, temperature, depth, etc.) of puddles from information on the ground surface obtained by aerial photography by UAV, and then detect only puddles that pose a high risk of mosquito larvae infestation. In addition, an LSM app will also be developed that will support sprayers by suggesting moving routes to puddles detected by AI and the amount of pesticide to spray.
Malaria, one of the world’s three major infectious diseases, is an acute febrile disease that carries the risk of developing complications and becoming severe after infection, so preventing infection beforehand is important. In recent years, larval source management (LSM), which reduces the population of malaria-transmitting Anopheles mosquitoes before they reach adulthood, has been attracting attention as a malaria countermeasure. LSM effectively eradicates mosquito larvae (mosquito larvae) by spraying puddles where mosquito larvae are likely to breed. However, since identifying target puddles requires a large amount of human and time resources, pesticides are currently sprayed on every puddle, which is costly and environmentally burdensome, and has limited its adoption. SORA Technology Co., Ltd. aims to commercialize an efficient LSM service that uses fixed-wing UAVs, which have strengths in long-term and long-distance flights, to efficiently find puddles, select puddles with a high risk of mosquito larvae breeding, and spray puddles with pesticides.
Apr 2024
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