Autonomous surveillance for biosecurity
This is an incremental review that maps technologies to threats without presenting new results.
The paper tackles the problem of biosecurity threats from global movement by reviewing autonomous surveillance systems, including sensor networks and robots, and finds they offer broad opportunities for addressing vector-borne diseases, plant pests, and aquatic pests.
The global movement of people and goods has increased the risk of biosecurity threats and their potential to incur large economic, social, and environmental costs. Conventional manual biosecurity surveillance methods are limited by their scalability in space and time. This article focuses on autonomous surveillance systems, comprising sensor networks, robots, and intelligent algorithms, and their applicability to biosecurity threats. We discuss the spatial and temporal attributes of autonomous surveillance technologies and map them to three broad categories of biosecurity threat: (i) vector-borne diseases; (ii) plant pests; and (iii) aquatic pests. Our discussion reveals a broad range of opportunities to serve biosecurity needs through autonomous surveillance.