AI to improve insect farming efficiency
Entoverse, which was set up two years ago, is developing smart solutions to optimize and industrialize the growing of insects for animal and human consumption.
The idea is that the technology can help manage the breeding process of insects, which are sensitive to issues such as weather and disease and the quality of organic waste used as feedstock.
Dr Dmitry Mikhaylov, chief technology, and co-founder of Entoverse, and an associate professor at the National University of Singapore, told us the Entoverse AI system can help the farmer to decrease insect mortality and reduce labor costs.
System makes recommendations
Mikhaylov has collected data on how insects operate, live, and behave in order to monitor their well-being. This data means the AI system can make recommendations to avoid situations that can impact the insects such as lack of food, weather changes, incorrect temperature to even ensuring the right gender mix.
The AI can make these recommendations as it understands the communications of insects such as crickets after recording and analyzing their sounds. It found it could decipher the sounds when the insects want food or if there is a change in temperature. This allows an insect farmer to react quickly to any changes, and to manage production.
“As a farmer you just have an app and you get a notification or alarm that there are some abnormalities happening in one of the bins,” said Mikhaylov.
“We also found out if you have the wrong proportions of cricket [populations] in the bin, such as more males, then they will start fighting. You have to ensure a balance between male and females. And the camera can distinguish the difference between those.”
The company is currently working with a range of farms in Southeast Asia and Europe, helping them to improve their insect production.
