Novel sensing technologies for safeguarding European agriculture
The PurPest project seeks to detect invasive pests by detecting odours either produced by the pest or the attacked plant. These odours can be in the form of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). There are two major challenges to our approach. The first is the potentially extremely low concentrations of relevant VOCs that need to be detected. The other is the vast amount of background VOCs that need to be ignored by the pest sensor. To meet these challenges, the PurPest partners are developing a Sensor System Prototype (SSP) that will include various sensing technologies to ensure maximum probability of success and adaptation. The SSP will have four main parts; pre-concentration, separation and detection of VOCs and data analysis.
The pre-concentration lowers the limit of detection of the system, increasing the chances of pest detection. For PurPest we are developing miniature low energy ovens that release the collected VOCs. The separation enables discrimination of VOCs to separate the background VOCs from the pest-related VOCs. In addition, we are using 3D printing and novel coatings to miniaturise these units. The detection unit registers the amount of the VOCs coming through the separation. For this we are developing electronic noses, optical based sensors and hybrid systems for maximum detection efficiency. The data analysis compares the results to a set of criteria using artificial intelligence to establish the probability of the presence of pests. Through innovation, we are targeting a portable sensing unit weighting under 15 kg that will drastically increase the detection of invasive pests both at point of import and in the field.
Plant Pest Prevention through Technology-guided monitoring and site-specific control
Ongoing | 2023-2026
- Main funding source
- Horizon Europe (EU Research and Innovation Programme)
- Geographical location
- France, Germany, Slovakia, Italy, Portugal, Czechia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Great Britain, Switzerland