  The Black Soldier Fly (BSF), can be an effective alternative to traditional
disposal of food and agricultural waste (biowaste) such as landfills because
its larvae are able to quickly transform biowaste into ready-to-use biomass.
However, several challenges remain to ensure that BSF farming is economically
viable at different scales and can be widely implemented. Manual labor is
required to ensure optimal conditions to rear the larvae, from aerating the
feeding substrate to monitoring abiotic conditions during the growth cycle.
This paper introduces a proof-of-concept automated method of rearing BSF larvae
to ensure optimal growing conditions while at the same time reducing manual
labor. We retrofit existing BSF rearing bins with a "smart lid," named as such
due to the hot-swappable nature of the lid with multiple bins. The system
automatically aerates the larvae-diet substrate and provides bio-information of
the larvae to users in real time. The proposed solution uses a custom aeration
method and an array of sensors to create a soft real time system. Growth of
larvae is monitored using thermal imaging and classical computer vision
techniques. Experimental testing reveals that our automated approach produces
BSF larvae on par with manual techniques.
