DiversityScanner is novel technology developed by Rudolf Meier (Museum fur Naturkunde) and Lorenz Wührl and Christian Pylatiuk (Karlsruher Institut für Technologie) that combines robotics, machine learning and high-throughput genomic sequencing to scan, classify and quantify invertebrate taxa from bulk environmental samples, at a price and scale not possible with current methods.

A robot, the “DiversityScanner,  detects, images, and measures individual specimens and moves them into the wells of a 96-well microplate. The images are used to train convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to assign specimens to common insect families. To obtain biomass information, the images are also used to measure specimen length and estimate body volume. In order to obtain DNA barcodes, robust and cost-effective barcoding techniques involving ONT sequencers and bioinformatics tools have been develped that allow for approximate species-level sorting.

References and further reading

• Srivathsan, A., Lee, L., Katoh, K. et al. (2021). ONTbarcoder and MinION barcodes aid biodiversity discovery and identification by everyone, for everyone. BMC Biol 19, 217. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-021-01141-x
• Wührl, L., Pylatiuk, C., Giersch, M., Lapp, F., von Rintelen, T., Balke, M., Schmidt, S., Cerretti, P., & Meier, R. (2022). DiversityScanner: Robotic handling of small invertebrates with machine learning methods. Molecular Ecology Resources, 22, 1626–1638. https://doi.org/10.1111/1755-0998.13567
• Rudolf Meier, Amrita Srivathsan, Sarah Siqueira Oliveira, Maria Isabel P.A. Balbi, Yuchen Ang, Darren Yeo, Dalton de Souza Amorim. (2023). "Dark taxonomy”: a new protocol for overcoming the taxonomic impediments for dark taxa and broadening the taxon base for biodiversity assessment. bioRxiv 2023.08.31.555664; https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.08.31.555664
• Meier, Rudolf, Hartop, Emily & Srivathsan, Amrita. (2024). Towards holistic insect monitoring: species discovery, description, identification and traits for all insects. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. 379. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2023.0120
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• Artificial intelligence could help biologists classify the world's tiny creatures
• DiversityScanner: AI-based Robotics Assist With the Discovery of Small Invertebrates
• DiversityScanner: Robotic discovery of small invertebrates with machine learning methods
• Accelerating Biodiversity Discovery in Hyperdiverse Arthropod Clades with Robots and Nanopore Sequencing