Descripción del proyecto
El futuro del control de plagas está en los robots y los machos estériles
Las enfermedades vectoriales, como la malaria, son infecciones transmitidas por mosquitos y otras especies de artrópodos. Este tipo de afecciones son muy comunes en Europa, lo que confiere especial importancia a la vigilancia de mosquitos a fin de controlar brotes. Con todo, los métodos actuales requieren la catalogación manual de cientos de insectos para, a continuación, enviarlos para el correspondiente análisis de patógenos. El proyecto financiado con fondos europeos RoboSIT ha desarrollado un robot para mejorar la eficiencia de esta tarea. En concreto, permitirá crear fábricas de cría en masa y sexar mediante inteligencia artificial. La detección de patógenos favorecerá la liberación de millones de machos estériles que se aparearán con las hembras, que ya no producirán descendencia. El objetivo es eliminar gradualmente el uso de plaguicidas muy peligrosos.
Objetivo
Mosquitoes infect millions of people annually with disease such as malaria, dengue, zika and chikungunya. Meticulous mosquito surveillance is critical for controlling outbreaks, but today’s approaches are highly ineffective. Experts need to manually identify and pool hundreds of insects and send them for pathogen analysis. We have developed an AI-driven robot to do this task.
Vector control is commonly done using insecticides. 4,500 tonnes of DDT are still used every year to fight malaria due to the large unmet need in endemic areas. The insecticide-approach is unsustainable due to resistance, environmental contamination and severe impact on human health.
Our approach to vector control is to industrialize the most environment-friendly pest control method ever developed: the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT). SIT builds on the principle of releasing sterile insects in vast numbers, which mate with wild females, but do not give rise to offspring. Despite the great success that has been demonstrated using SIT in pilot studies, the technique is not scalable as sex-sorting of millions of insects is done manually. Consequently, the global impact of manual SIT is negligible. Our RoboSIT solution will encompass mass-rearing factories and sex-sorting using AI-driven robots. Pathogen detection will trigger the release of millions of sterile males in designated areas. Optimizing reaction times of outbreaks can save societies millions of € in healthcare cost. Bringing RoboSIT to market will incentivize the set-up of automated SIT facilities and reduce usage of insecticides.
We expect to launch RoboSIT in the EU and US in 2023 and generate revenues toward €49m 2 years later. We will expand to over 100 people in 5 years. Each new RoboSIT facility will generate 15 indirect jobs. Mosquito vector control is a stepping-stone for scaling into other vectors and pest. The potential of reducing pesticides in agriculture is huge; each year 2.5m tonnes of pesticides are used around the globe
Ámbito científico
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
Convocatoria de propuestas
Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoriaConvocatoria de subcontratación
H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020-4
Régimen de financiación
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2Coordinador
4463107 Kfar Saba
Israel
Organización definida por ella misma como pequeña y mediana empresa (pyme) en el momento de la firma del acuerdo de subvención.