Treevibes: Modern Tools For Global Monitoring Of Trees For Borers

Simple Summary We demonstrate that remote, automatic monitoring of probed trees for borers at global scales is currently technologically feasible. Vibroacoustic recorders, one per tree, sample on a prescheduled basis (e.g., 20 s per hour) short clips of the internal vibroacoustic soundscene of trees. These clips are compressed and wirelessly transmitted on cloud services where deep learning networks screen those data and tag if a tree is infested or not. This approach allows us to integrate information over a large time span (from a single day to weeks) before reaching a decision on the infestation state of the tree. We aim at automatizing inspection services against wood-boring insects in commodity entry point, forests and tree cultivations and directing only ambiguous cases to a human observer.Abstract Is there a wood-feeding insect inside a tree or wooden structure? We investigate several ways of how deep learning approaches can massively scan recordings of vibrations stemming from probed trees to infer their infestation state with wood-boring insects that feed and move inside wood. The recordings come from remotely controlled devices that sample the internal soundscape of trees on a 24/7 basis and wirelessly transmit brief recordings of the registered vibrations to a cloud server. We discuss the different sources of vibrations that can be picked up from trees in urban environments and how deep learning methods can focus on those originating from borers. Our goal is to match the problem of the accelerated-due to global trade and climate change- establishment of invasive xylophagus insects by increasing the capacity of inspection agencies. We aim at introducing permanent, cost-effective, automatic monitoring of trees based on deep learning techniques, in commodity entry points as well as in wild, urban and cultivated areas in order to effect large-scale, sustainable pest-risk analysis and management of wood boring insects such as those from the Cerambycidae family (longhorn beetles).