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.Comment: 26 pages, Trends in Biotechnology, 3 March 2015, ISSN 0167-7799,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tibtech.2015.01.003.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167779915000190