Source: Creare Design Group, LLC submitted to NRP
DETECTION OF TERMITES USING DISTRIBUTED WIRELESS MONITORING
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
SMALL BUSINESS GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0203001
Grant No.
2005-33610-15531
Cumulative Award Amt.
(N/A)
Proposal No.
2005-00028
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
May 1, 2005
Project End Date
Dec 31, 2005
Grant Year
2005
Program Code
[8.1]- (N/A)
Recipient Organization
Creare Design Group, LLC
(N/A)
Germantown,TN 38183
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
While termites inflict almost $4 Billion dollars in damage per year in the United States, termite control still depends upon labor intensive and expensive manual monitoring techniques. This project will determine the feasibility of deploying acoustic sensor arrays that will alert a Pest Management Professional (PMP) of termite activity.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
80331102020100%
Knowledge Area
803 - Sociological and Technological Change Affecting Individuals, Families, and Communities;

Subject Of Investigation
3110 - Insects;

Field Of Science
2020 - Engineering;
Goals / Objectives
This project will determine the feasibility of a low cost wireless termite monitoring system that, once deployed, requires minimal system maintenance while retaining a high probability of detection. Specific objectives include: 1) Building a small wireless network of the scale that would be required for protecting a structure and using this network to determine the power, bandwidth, and cost requirements necessary for acoustic monitoring. 2)Determining the best sensing method for the acoustic detection of termites and developing a prototype sensor. 3) Developing a software recognition strategy for reliably detecting termite acoustic activity at the sensor. 4) Predicting the overall effectiveness of a wireless termite monitoring system, and estimating the cost and timesavings to a PMP on a yearly basis.
Project Methods
Wireless acoustic termite monitoring involves work in three distinct areas. First, the sensor net must allow reliable communication while having a minimal cost and power footprint. We will be experimenting with multi-hop protocols in which data packets are passed in a bucket brigade style, allowing stations to self arrange into networks. The advantages are lower power consumption and tolerance to hardware failures. The next efforts are in sensor design and signal processing. These are closely coupled as better processing routines may allow less expensive and lower sensitivity sensors. Signal processing will concentrate upon optimizing combinations of multiple signal detection techniques and generating outputs tailored for indicating termite presence. The small power footprint of the network limits processing routines while sensor design is constrained by cost requirements and the need for ruggedness.

Progress 05/01/05 to 12/31/05

Outputs
Over the course of this effort, we succeeded in the development of a low-cost sensor for detection of termite activity within wooden sample blocks. Using data collected from these sensors, a software algorithm was then developed that reliably detected termite activity within wooden sample blocks.

Impacts
Detection and monitoring of termites is one of the highest cost and least reliable components of modern termite treatments. The ability to accurately detect and quantify termite activity allows for a more rapid and precise application of termiticide, which not only reduces the costs associated with damage, but also reduces the environmental impact of treatment chemicals.

Publications

  • No publications reported this period