Automated Monitoring of Insects system: Building a non-lethal and scalable solution for monitoring of nocturnal insects - Design files and software

There is growing evidence that human-induced climate change and habitat loss are having negative impacts on insect populations. New technologies have a vital role in improving and expanding global biodiversity monitoring capacity to understand where change is happening and to support restoration. Monitoring of insects traditionally needs entomologists in the field, but insect camera traps powered by AI are emerging as a scalable approach to monitoring semi-autonomously. These systems attract, detect, and identify insects using AI algorithms and are being developed by a network of researchers across the world, notably in Europe and North America. The first version of a system for monitoring nocturnal insects was developed by Bjerge et al. (2021) and further interated by the authors of this submission. Here we supply the build instructions for the system and software needed to opperate the system. This accompanies a paper giving a fuller explaination of the build and opperation of the system. The system captures images at set intervals or based on motion detection to monitor insects that are attracted to lights at night. The UKCEH Automated Monitoring of Insects System (UKCEH AMI-system) is an insect camera trap designed using a single board computer, USB camera and attractant lights as the primary components along with peripheral accessories to make an autonomous system capable of long-term deployment in the field. This submission includes the following files: The operating system image including all software - rasp-pi-AMI.zip A build manual, giving detailed information on how to assemble the system - Build Manual v3.docx The bill of materials (BOM), detailing all the components needed to build the system - AMI Trap BOM v6.xlsx Engeneering drawings and editable files of all machined components - AMI_hardware_drawings.zip, AMI_MothLEDBoard_v2.zip, AMI_solidworks_assembly_and_parts.zip, AMI_gasket_designs.zip