High Resolution Outdoor Videography of Insects Using Fast Lock-On Tracking

Abstract

Insects have significant global impacts on ecology, economy, and health and yet our understanding of their behavior remains limited. Bees, for example, use vision and a tiny brain to find flowers and return home, but understanding how they perform these impressive tasks has been hampered by limitations in recording technology. Here we present Fast Lock-On (FLO) tracking. This method moves an image sensor to remain focused on a retroreflective marker affixed to an insect. Using paraxial infrared illumination, simple image processing can localize the sensor location of the insect in a few milliseconds. When coupled with a feedback system to steer a high magnification optical system to remain focused on the insect, a high spatial-temporal resolution trajectory can be gathered over a large region. As the basis for several robotic systems, we show FLO is a versatile idea which can be employed in combination with other components. We demonstrate that the optical path can be split and used for recording high-speed video. Furthermore, by flying a FLO system on a quadcopter drone, we track a flying honey bee and anticipate tracking insects in the wild over kilometer scales. Such systems have the capability of providing higher resolution information about insects behaving in natural environments and as such will be helpful in revealing the biomechanical and neuroethological mechanisms used by insects in natural settings. One-Sentence SummaryFast Lock-On tracking enables recording trajectories and high-speed videos of insects behaving over large areas in the wild.