# Revolutionizing Urban Pest Management with Sensor Fusion and Precision Fumigation Robotics
## 1 Introduction  
Mosquito-borne illnesses are still a significant cause of death worldwide, threatening public health [1]. These insects are carriers of viruses, transmitting illnesses such as dengue, chikungunya, dirofilariasis, malaria, and Zika [2; 3; 4]. Due to global warming, temperatures are rising, and heat spikes are occurring more often. Researchers have found that mosquitoes adapting to heat spikes have become more pesticide-resistant [5]. The National Environmental Agency (NEA) of Singapore has declared various types of open and closed drains, discarded containers, clogged gutters, and roadside drainage gates as a few of the mosquitoes' most common breeding sites, as illustrated in Figure 1[6; 7; 8]. As a method of population control, fumigation is typically used alongside other methods, such as mosquito traps and lab-grown mosquitoes, which mate with female mosquitoes and make them infertile [9]. Active and passive traps [10] combat increasing populations of mosquitoes. Active traps use gaseous chemicals such as carbon dioxide (CO\({}_{2}\)) and visual attractants such as light, while passive traps use sticky surfaces to trap mosquitoes. Some examples of traps that have been used and studied are the Biogents sentinel trap, which uses CO\({}_{2}\)[11], light traps [12], oiturraps, which serve as a place for mosquito to deposit eggs into lavrictide, effectively killing the hatched eggs [13], and gravitraps, which functionlike outraps [14]. However, each of these traps has its limitations. The Biogents Sentinal trap is much more effective when paired with another attractant, such as the BG Lure [15]. Light traps are inefficient when there are high mosquito densities [16]. Ovitraps are not as efficient as other traps, such as the host-seeking female traps [17]. Lastly, gravitraps are not as efficient as suction fan traps and have the limitation of trapping male mosquitoes [18]. Thus, fumigation has proven to be very effective in mosquito population control. Manual fumigation by humans is a laborious task, and there is a chance that humans may overlook specific breeding grounds. According to the NEA, hydrogen cyanide, methyl bromide, and hydrogen phosphide are common fumigants [19]. Overexpression to fumigants can impact the central nervous system [20,21]. Thus, robots can assist in automating mosquito breeding ground detection and fumigation. In previous works, researchers have demonstrated an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-based fumigation robot that identifies possible mosquito breeding grounds [22]. However, it is not easy for UAVs to fumigate small areas on the ground as UAVs are better designed for widespread area coverage during spraying, as used in the agriculture industry. Due to the height from which the fumigants are sprayed, there is a chance that the fumigants may not reach the intended mosquito breeding ground. Environmental factors, such as wind, may also blow the fumigants away before they reach the hotspot, deeming it ineffective [23,24]. Ground robots are safer as there is no risk of collisions with birds in the sky or the robot failing mid-air and falling to the ground. Furthermore, a land robot's energy expenditure is better spent on locomotion. Researchers [25] employed deep learning models, specifically various YOLO-based architectures, to identify and target specific areas within tobacco fields for treatment. This approach optimizes the application of agrochemicals, reducing waste and environmental impact, and addresses challenges such as pressure fluctuations during spraying [25, 26, 27, 28]. The study developed by [29] presents an electric sprayer with a crop perception system that calculates leaf density using a support vector machine (SVM). This system, tested with a dataset created for the community, achieved an accuracy between 80% and 85%, enhancing spraying accuracy and precision. This emphasizes the effectiveness of integrating machine learning for precise chemical applications.