SIT-ia: A Software-Hardware System to Improve Male Sorting Efficacy for the Sterile Insect Technique
Invasive insects can cause significant economic impacts to agriculture worldwide and impact human health. Traditional pest management methods that include chemical insecticides have raised increasing environmental and health concerns, prompting the need for sustainable alternatives. The Sterile Inse...
| Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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| Formato: | info:ar-repo/semantics/artículo |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
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MDPI
2025
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12123/24469 https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/16/11/1108 https://doi.org/10.3390/insects16111108 |
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| author | De La Vega, Gerardo Smith, Luciano Soria-Mercier, Lihuen Edwards, Wilson Triñanes, Federico Masagué, Santiago Corley, Juan Carlos |
| author_browse | Corley, Juan Carlos De La Vega, Gerardo Edwards, Wilson Masagué, Santiago Smith, Luciano Soria-Mercier, Lihuen Triñanes, Federico |
| author_facet | De La Vega, Gerardo Smith, Luciano Soria-Mercier, Lihuen Edwards, Wilson Triñanes, Federico Masagué, Santiago Corley, Juan Carlos |
| author_sort | De La Vega, Gerardo |
| collection | INTA Digital |
| description | Invasive insects can cause significant economic impacts to agriculture worldwide and impact human health. Traditional pest management methods that include chemical insecticides have raised increasing environmental and health concerns, prompting the need for sustainable alternatives. The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), which consists of releasing sterile males of a target pest to mate with wild females, is held as a promising solution. However, the success of SIT relies on the release of sterile males. The efficient separation of sexes prior to sterilization and release is necessary. This study presents SIT-ia, a software–hardware system that utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) and computer vision to automate the sex-sorting process. We showcase its use with the fruit fly pest D. suzukii. The system was able to identify males from females with a 98.6% accuracy, sorting 1000 sterile flies in ~70 min, which is nearly half the time involved in manual sorting by experts (i.e., ~112 min). This simple device can easily be adopted in SIT production protocols, improving the feasibility and efficacy of improved pest management practices. |
| format | info:ar-repo/semantics/artículo |
| id | INTA24469 |
| institution | Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA -Argentina) |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | MDPI |
| publisherStr | MDPI |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | INTA244692025-11-05T13:27:15Z SIT-ia: A Software-Hardware System to Improve Male Sorting Efficacy for the Sterile Insect Technique De La Vega, Gerardo Smith, Luciano Soria-Mercier, Lihuen Edwards, Wilson Triñanes, Federico Masagué, Santiago Corley, Juan Carlos Liberación de Insectos Estériles Gestión de Plagas Aprendizaje Automático Inteligencia Artificial Sterile Insect Release Pest Management Machine Learning Drosophila Artificial Intelligence Sterile Insect Technique Técnica del Insecto Estéril Drosophila suzukii Invasive insects can cause significant economic impacts to agriculture worldwide and impact human health. Traditional pest management methods that include chemical insecticides have raised increasing environmental and health concerns, prompting the need for sustainable alternatives. The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), which consists of releasing sterile males of a target pest to mate with wild females, is held as a promising solution. However, the success of SIT relies on the release of sterile males. The efficient separation of sexes prior to sterilization and release is necessary. This study presents SIT-ia, a software–hardware system that utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) and computer vision to automate the sex-sorting process. We showcase its use with the fruit fly pest D. suzukii. The system was able to identify males from females with a 98.6% accuracy, sorting 1000 sterile flies in ~70 min, which is nearly half the time involved in manual sorting by experts (i.e., ~112 min). This simple device can easily be adopted in SIT production protocols, improving the feasibility and efficacy of improved pest management practices. EEA Bariloche Fil: De La Vega, Gerardo. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Bariloche. Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias Bariloche (IFAB); Argentina Fil: De La Vega, Gerardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias Bariloche (IFAB); Argentina Fil: Smith, Luciano. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ingeniería; Argentina Fil: Soria-Mercier, Lihuen. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Centro Regional Universitario Bariloche; Argentina Fil: Edwards, Wilson. Servicio Nacional de Sanidad y Calidad Agroalimentaria (SENASA). Centro Regional Patagonia Norte; Argentina Fil: Triñanes, Federico. Universidad de la República (Udelar). Facultad de Química. Laboratorio de Ecología Química; Uruguay Fil: Masagué, Santiago. Universidad de la República (Udelar). Facultad de Química. Laboratorio de Ecología Química; Uruguay Fil: Corley, Juan Carlos. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Bariloche. Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias Bariloche (IFAB); Argentina Fil: Corley, Juan Carlos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias Bariloche (IFAB); Argentina Fil: Corley, Juan Carlos. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Centro Regional Universitario Bariloche; Argentina 2025-11-05T13:22:31Z 2025-11-05T13:22:31Z 2025-11 info:ar-repo/semantics/artículo info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12123/24469 https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/16/11/1108 2075-4450 https://doi.org/10.3390/insects16111108 eng info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) application/pdf MDPI Insects 16 (11) : 1108. (November 2025) |
| spellingShingle | Liberación de Insectos Estériles Gestión de Plagas Aprendizaje Automático Inteligencia Artificial Sterile Insect Release Pest Management Machine Learning Drosophila Artificial Intelligence Sterile Insect Technique Técnica del Insecto Estéril Drosophila suzukii De La Vega, Gerardo Smith, Luciano Soria-Mercier, Lihuen Edwards, Wilson Triñanes, Federico Masagué, Santiago Corley, Juan Carlos SIT-ia: A Software-Hardware System to Improve Male Sorting Efficacy for the Sterile Insect Technique |
| title | SIT-ia: A Software-Hardware System to Improve Male Sorting Efficacy for the Sterile Insect Technique |
| title_full | SIT-ia: A Software-Hardware System to Improve Male Sorting Efficacy for the Sterile Insect Technique |
| title_fullStr | SIT-ia: A Software-Hardware System to Improve Male Sorting Efficacy for the Sterile Insect Technique |
| title_full_unstemmed | SIT-ia: A Software-Hardware System to Improve Male Sorting Efficacy for the Sterile Insect Technique |
| title_short | SIT-ia: A Software-Hardware System to Improve Male Sorting Efficacy for the Sterile Insect Technique |
| title_sort | sit ia a software hardware system to improve male sorting efficacy for the sterile insect technique |
| topic | Liberación de Insectos Estériles Gestión de Plagas Aprendizaje Automático Inteligencia Artificial Sterile Insect Release Pest Management Machine Learning Drosophila Artificial Intelligence Sterile Insect Technique Técnica del Insecto Estéril Drosophila suzukii |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12123/24469 https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/16/11/1108 https://doi.org/10.3390/insects16111108 |
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