The National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) said yesterday that its research team had developed an uncrewed ground vehicle systems capable of entering ditches in urban areas to observe mosquito ecology and effectively apply insecticide for vector control.
More than 8,000 local cases of dengue fever have been reported in Taiwan this year, and as the disease is transmitted to people through the bite of infected mosquitoes, effective vector control is paramount in preventing dengue transmission.
In the past, governments have relied on people to patrol the sewers and ditches for mosquito larvae, which requires a lot of effort and time, but poses a risk to the workers and can miss some hidden breeding grounds, NHRI National Mosquito-Borne Diseases Control Research Center project assistant investigator Liu Wei-liang (劉韋良) said
Photo courtesy of the institute
Liu and the research team collaborated with the Kaohsiung Department of Health and an aerospace technology company to develop uncrewed ground vehicle systems that can enter sewers and ditches to observe mosquito ecology. They have tested it in one of five districts in Kaohsiung from May to August in 2018.
Lui said they found mosquitoes in about 21 percent of the inspected ditches. He added that after deploying another unmanned ground vehicle equipped with high-temperature water spray to clean the larvae breeding grounds and insecticide spray to kill the mosquitoes and larvae, the vector density reduced from 0.62 to 0.19.
The team’s study has been published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, titled “Use of unmanned ground vehicle systems in urbanized zones: A study of vector Mosquito surveillance in Kaohsiung” in June.
Liu said as the ground vehicles currently have individual functions, the team is working to further improve the high-resolution digital camera and spraying system, hoping that the functions can be integrated to one vehicle that can effectively and instantly monitor mosquitoes and implement spraying controls.
Max Lo (羅正方), National Drone Industry Association chairman, said the ground vehicles are most suited for monitoring hard-to-reach areas by people, such as inside sewers and ditches, and as technology continues to advance, some vehicles are not only waterproof, but have several other functions.
The team hopes to improve the unmanned ground vehicle systems to include monitoring, cleaning, and insecticide spraying he said, adding that unmanned aerial vehicles are also being used to patrol gutters and water towers on the rook of empty buildings this year, and that the drones can detect standing water and spray insecticide, saving patrol and disinfection manpower.
AGGRESSION: China’s latest intrusions set a new benchmark for its ‘gray zone’ tactics and possibly a new pattern that it would attempt to normalize, a researcher said China’s latest military exercises represent a new challenge to Taiwan’s legal authority to demarcate its borders in the Taiwan Strait, a defense expert said, adding that the fleets in the latest exercises were likely the most powerful the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) ever assembled. The PLA conducted military exercises from Sunday last week to 6am on Friday, which encompassed large swathes of the western Pacific, including the Taiwan Strait and waters off the Philippines and Guam, National Policy Foundation associate research fellow Chieh Chung (揭仲) said on Friday. The Ministry of National Defense said that it detected 70 warship and 162 aircraft
DOMESTIC MARKET: To protect the livelihoods of local egg farmers, the government adopted a new method for releasing imported eggs, the agriculture minister said More than 54 million imported eggs will be disposed, as their expiration date has passed, Minister of Agriculture Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) said yesterday. Chen made the remarks at a news conference in Taipei, explaining the flow of imported eggs following recent controversies regarding the products. The ministry introduced a special egg import program to address a nationwide egg shortage earlier this year. However, controversies have risen in recent weeks. These included an accusation that the government helped some egg importing companies over others, eggs imported from Brazil that had an incorrect expiration date, and egg shipments from Brazil that were found
PACIFIC OCEAN: Defense experts have warned that the ‘Shandong,’ China’s second largest aircraft carrier, poses a serious threat to eastern Taiwan’s defenses The drills conducted by the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong in the Western Pacific last week were more aimed at showcasing China’s military capabilities to the US rather than toward Taiwan, a Taiwanese defense expert said yesterday. Lin Yin-yu (林穎佑), an assistant professor at Tamkang University’s Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies, said the drills which involved dozens of warplanes sought to test China’s anti-access and area denial capabilities should the US and its allies attempt to interfere in a cross-strait conflict. Lin said that the latest Chinese drills coincided with a joint maritime exercise conducted by the US, South Korea
Thousands of bottles of Sriracha have been returned or destroyed after the discovery of excessive sulfur dioxide, a bleaching agent, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Tuesday. About 12,600 bottles totaling 9,991.8kg of the hot sauce imported from the US by Emporium Corp (河洛企業) were flagged at the border for containing illegal levels of sulfur dioxide, the FDA said in its regular border inspection announcement. Inspectors discovered 0.5g per kilogram of the common bleaching agent and preservative, higher than the 0.03g permitted, it said. As it is the first time within six months the product has been flagged, Sriracha products from
RSS