Sensor-based outdoor monitoring of insects in arable crops for their precise control.

The implementation of precision farming technologies into agricultural practice requires, among others, precise determination of the extent and intensity of insect infestation in the farmer' fields. Manual insect identification is time consuming and has low efficiency - especially in the case of large fields. Therefore, a big effort of scientists and practitioners is devoted to the automatisation of this process. There are two, complementary approaches to insect identification: i) direct - in which the insect (ultimately - the species) is determined and ii) indirect - in which the damages caused by the insects are monitored and these damages form the basis to formulate the information about insects infestation. A mini-review of both approaches is presented in this work. Additionally, the advantages and disadvantages of each of them are briefly described. The methods of insect identification are still characterised by relatively small selectivity and efficiency. Therefore, it is necessary to keep searching for new methods and improve the development of existing ones. The goal of such systems should be to work in real time and be inexpensive to run, enabling widespread use amongst farmers. A possible solution seems to be integrating various techniques (sensor fusion) into a single measurement system. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.