Some convinced insects could be used to detect bombs

Billings Gazette
Aug. 05, 2006

WASHINGTON - Montana researchers' vision of honeybees swarming across a field to detect landmines in Afghanistan or roadside bombs in Iraq may get a $5 million boost after Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., included the funding in a Defense Department spending bill.

The researchers believe they are on the verge of perfecting a briefcase-size system that can be carried around and deployed easily, using laser technology to track bees that have been trained to find explosives.

"They're on par with or better than dogs," said Jerry Bromenshenk, a research professor at the University of Montana, who submitted the funding request. "We're asking for a chance to show it can work in (various) applications."

If Congress approves the money, it would flow through the U.S. Army and then to a joint effort involving the University of Montana, Montana State University and private companies in the state to build and deploy a bomb-detecting system based on bees.

Burns, in a tough re-election race, has been running on his ability to bring federal money to the state.

"The practical application for this program is potentially life-saving," said Burns spokesman Matt Mackowiak. "Uncleared land mines are killing 150 people around the world every day, and IEDs are a lethal threat to our soldiers combating terrorism around the world. Senator Burns was pleased to support this program." IEDs are improvised explosive devices, typically homemade bombs.

Burns included $5 million for "biological detection of unexploded ordnance and land mines" in the Defense Department spending bill that the full Senate debated Thursday. House and Senate negotiators still must hammer out details of the final bill.

The researchers estimate the total program cost at $15 million over five years. Congress at Burns' request appropriated money in previous defense spending bills for the bee research, including $1.9 million in fiscal year 2005 and $2.8 million in fiscal 2006.

The researchers' first obstacle, they say, is credibility. It seems people have a hard time wrapping their heads around the concept of bomb-finding bees.

"When Jerry first approached me to be part of this group, I snickered," said Steven Rice, professor of electronics at UM. "I am convinced. ... We have gone through the prototyping, we've built a couple, we've tested them, I think we have a high degree of accuracy and I think it works well."

To convince potential users, they plan demonstrations at overseas sites, including Croatia, Afghanistan, South Africa, Qatar and Turkey. Bromenshenk said that if the funding is approved, those demonstrations could begin next summer.

The researachers aim to perfect a complete system that users can buy off the shelf. They can currently deploy the system out of the back of a Suburban, but it needs be smaller, they said.

"Once we can do that and take it to someone's site, it sells itself at that point," said David Firth, business professor at UM.

The laser system can pick up individual bees at 150 yards out, they said. The bees could also be trained to find meth labs, dead bodies or other things.

The universities are partnering with S & K Electronics and optics firms in Bozeman that would manufacture the systems.

"We don't want to stay on the government money, we want to see this out the door and being used and creating jobs and manufacturing opportunities for the state," Bromenshenk said.

United Nations officials came to a demonstration and are "very convinced" the project will work, the researchers said. Canada is financing the support costs of bringing them to that country for a full trial soon, Bromenshenk said.

But the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which originally worked on the project, has said it no longer would participate. DARPA spokeswoman Jan Walker said the agency has obtained money for honeybee research in the past but has not found it useful and will not pursue it further.

"We have invested in this area for a numbers of years," she said. "Our efforts are finishing up. We believe it's unlikely they would prove useful in explosive detection, IED detection, things like that. We don't plan any further efforts."

Bromenshenk said they had ended their cooperation with DARPA earlier, before the laser technology was developed.

About 70 percent of the funding would be spent in Montana, while about 20 percent would be retained by the Army and the remaining 10 percent would be used to buy equipment not made or sold in the state.