bugcam

Raspberry Pi insect detection CLI using Hailo AI accelerator and the edge26 processing pipeline. Records video, detects and classifies insects on-device, and uploads results to S3.

Default API endpoint: https://api.sensinggarden.com/v1

Prerequisites (Raspberry Pi with Hailo AI)

bugcam requires system-level Hailo packages that are not available via PyPI. Install them before running setup:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install python3-hailo-tappas hailo-tappas-core

If you encounter sudo password prompts during setup, enable passwordless sudo:

echo "$USER ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL" | sudo tee /etc/sudoers.d/$USER

Quick Start

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MIT-Senseable-City-Lab/sensing-garden/main/install.sh | bash
bugcam setup
bugcam models list
bugcam models download <model-name>
bugcam run

Commands

Command	Description
`bugcam run`	Full pipeline: record + process + upload + heartbeat + receiver
`bugcam run --no-receiver`	Run without DOT receiver server
`bugcam receive start`	Start DOT receiver server standalone
`bugcam record single`	Record a single video
`bugcam process`	Process existing videos with edge26
`bugcam upload`	Upload processed output to S3
`bugcam heartbeat`	Write a heartbeat snapshot
`bugcam environment`	Collect one environmental sensor reading
`bugcam dot-info`	Show DOT sensor setup instructions
`bugcam models list`	List available and installed models
`bugcam models download <name>`	Download a model bundle
`bugcam models info <name>`	Show model details
`bugcam models delete <name>`	Delete a model bundle
`bugcam status`	System diagnostics (hardware, deps, camera, Hailo)
`bugcam setup`	Device registration + Hailo installation
`bugcam autostart enable`	Enable systemd service for boot
`bugcam autostart disable`	Disable systemd service
`bugcam autostart status`	Show service status
`bugcam autostart logs`	View service logs
`bugcam update`	Update to latest version
`bugcam --version`	Show installed version

`bugcam run` Options

Option	Default	Description
`--with-receiver/--no-receiver`	`True`	Start DOT receiver alongside pipeline
`--receiver-port`	`5001`	DOT receiver HTTP port
`--receiver-host`	`0.0.0.0`	DOT receiver bind address
`--mode`	`continuous`	Recording mode: continuous or interval
`--interval`	`5`	Minutes between recordings (interval mode)
`--chunk-duration`	`60`	Length of each recorded chunk in seconds
`--model`	(from config)	Model bundle name or model.hef path
`--detection-config`	(bundled)	Path to custom detection config YAML

Architecture

edge26 pipeline lives in bugcam/edge26/ (vendored from the edge26 repo). Handles recording, processing, and output formatting.
BugSpot library handles motion detection and insect tracking.
Hailo accelerator runs classification on detected insects.
DOT Receiver (bugcam/receiver/) is an HTTP server that receives insect track data from iOS devices (DOTs) and saves it in edge26-compatible format. Automatically started with bugcam run (can be disabled with --no-receiver). Can also run standalone via bugcam receive start.
Upload sends results to S3 via presigned URLs obtained from the backend API. No AWS credentials are stored on-device -- only a per-device API key issued during bugcam setup.
S3 trigger Lambda indexes uploaded results into DynamoDB.

Configuration

Config file: ~/.config/bugcam/config.json

Field	Description
`api_url`	Backend API endpoint
`api_key`	Per-device API key (from registration)
`flick_id`	FLICK device identifier
`dot_ids`	List of DOT device identifiers
`s3_bucket`	Output S3 bucket name
`input_dir`	DOT receiver input directory
`output_dir`	Processed video output directory
`state_dir`	State/pending directory
`pending_dir`	Classification queue directory

Models are stored in ~/.cache/bugcam/models/<bundle>/ (each bundle contains model.hef + labels.txt).

Detection Configuration

bugcam ships with default detection parameters in bugcam/detection.yaml (bundled with the package). These values control motion detection, blob filtering, and insect tracking behavior.

Using Custom Detection Config

# Use custom config with run command
bugcam run --detection-config /path/to/custom.yaml

# Use custom config with process command
bugcam process --detection-config /path/to/custom.yaml

If no --detection-config is specified, the bundled default is used.

Detection Parameters

Parameter	Default	Description
`gmm_history`	500	Background subtractor history length
`gmm_var_threshold`	16	GMM variance threshold
`morph_kernel_size`	5	Morphological filter kernel size (pixels)
`min_area`	0.00012	Min detection area (fraction of 4K frame, ~995 px²)
`max_area`	0.0015	Max detection area (fraction of 4K frame, ~12,440 px²)
`min_density`	3.0	Min blob density (area/perimeter)
`min_solidity`	0.55	Min convex hull fill ratio
`min_largest_blob_ratio`	0.85	Min ratio of largest blob to total motion
`max_num_blobs`	3	Max number of motion blobs to consider
`min_motion_ratio`	0.20	Min ratio of motion pixels to frame
`min_displacement`	0.25	Min net path displacement (fraction of frame width)
`min_path_points`	10	Min number of path points for valid track
`max_frame_jump`	0.06	Max single-step centroid jump (fraction of frame width)
`max_lost_frames`	45	Max frames a track can be lost before finalizing
`max_area_change_ratio`	3.0	Max allowed area change between frames
`tracker_w_dist`	0.6	Distance weight for Hungarian tracker matching
`tracker_w_area`	0.4	Area weight for Hungarian tracker matching
`tracker_cost_threshold`	0.25	Max cost threshold for tracker matching
`revisit_radius`	0.025	Radius for detecting path revisits (fraction of frame width)
`max_revisit_ratio`	0.30	Max ratio of path points that are revisits
`min_progression_ratio`	0.70	Min ratio of path moving forward vs backward
`max_directional_variance`	0.85	Max variance in path direction

For more details on these parameters, see the comments in bugcam/detection.yaml.

Storage Configuration

By default, bugcam stores data on the SD card. For better performance (avoid "frame queue full" errors), use an external USB drive.

Storage Type	Write Speed	Sustained Performance
SD Card (Class 10)	10-40 MB/s	Degrades as it fills up
USB 3.0 Flash Drive	20-100 MB/s	More consistent
USB 3.0 SSD	200-500+ MB/s	Very stable

Configuration Methods (in order of precedence):

CLI options (per run):

bugcam run --input-dir /media/pi/4549-BC23/bugcam/incoming \
              --output-dir /media/pi/4549-BC23/bugcam/outputs

Config file (persistent, set during bugcam setup):

{
  "input_dir": "/media/pi/4549-BC23/bugcam/incoming",
  "output_dir": "/media/pi/4549-BC23/bugcam/outputs",
  "state_dir": "/media/pi/4549-BC23/bugcam/state"
}

Environment variables (persistent in shell):

export BUGCAM_INPUT_DIR="/media/pi/4549-BC23/bugcam/incoming"
export BUGCAM_OUTPUT_DIR="/media/pi/4549-BC23/bugcam/outputs"
export BUGCAM_STATE_DIR="/media/pi/4549-BC23/bugcam/state"

During bugcam setup, external drives are automatically detected and offered as storage locations.

Requirements

Raspberry Pi 5 with 8GB RAM
Raspberry Pi AI HAT+ (Hailo-8L or Hailo-8)
Pi Camera (HQ Camera recommended)
Optional SEN55 environmental sensor on I2C for bugcam environment and periodic environment uploads
Python 3.11+
Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm 64-bit
build-essential and libcjson-dev for building the bundled SEN55 reader

DOT Sensors

DOTs are mobile devices (iPhones) that detect insects and send data to a FLICK (Raspberry Pi) for classification. Run bugcam dot-info on the FLICK to see full setup instructions.

The FLICK runs a DOT Receiver server (started by default with bugcam run) that accepts HTTP uploads from iOS devices on port 5001.

DOT Receiver Endpoints

Endpoint	Method	Description
`/upload_crops`	POST	Receive crop images for a track
`/upload_labels`	POST	Receive bounding box labels
`/upload_done`	POST	Signal track completion
`/upload_background`	POST	Receive reference background image
`/upload_video`	POST	Receive video file
`/api/track`	POST	Alternative track telemetry endpoint
`/api/heartbeat`	GET/POST	Connection test
`/api/health`	GET	Health check

Data Structure

Each DOT puts files in the FLICK's input folder using this structure:

{dot_id}_{YYYYMMDD}/
├── crops/{track_id}_{HHMMSS}/
│   ├── frame_000001.jpg
│   └── done.txt                ← signals track is ready to process
├── labels/{track_id}.json      ← bounding boxes per frame
├── videos/{dot_id}_{YYYYMMDD}_{HHMMSS}.mp4
└── {HHMMSS}_background.jpg     ← reference frame without insects

DOTs also write heartbeat and environment data to the output folder:

{dot_id}/
├── heartbeats/{YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS}.json
└── environment/{YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS}.json

DOT IDs are auto-generated during bugcam setup (e.g. garden-london-1-dot01). The receiver automatically assigns DOT IDs to connecting iOS devices from the configured dot_ids list.

Development

git clone https://github.com/MIT-Senseable-City-Lab/sensing-garden.git
cd sensing-garden
poetry install
poetry run bugcam --help

License

MIT

Metadata

Release files for bugcam 0.8.3

For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.

Source distribution (sdist)

Source distribution for bugcam 0.8.3
File	Size	Uploaded
bugcam-0.8.3.tar.gz	134.4 kB	Jul 20, 2026	Details

Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for bugcam 0.8.3
File	Interpreter	ABI	Platform	Reset
bugcam-0.8.3-py3-none-any.whl 166.5 kB Jul 20, 2026	Python 3	none	any	Details

Total release size: 300.9 kB

Release files / bugcam-0.8.3.tar.gz

Download URL	bugcam-0.8.3.tar.gz
Size	134.4 kB
Tags	Source
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`30dd5e21137ca1992e407aa99616920d590b0eadfb57326fc8ac3764337eebb0`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`3dc17d0c92039b4b7252b9d4ef555b0f86cd7fcabda64ecd4f6d6670c5cb9cf1`
Upload date	Jul 20, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	No
Uploaded via	`poetry/2.4.1 CPython/3.14.6 Linux/7.1.3-arch1-3`

Release files / bugcam-0.8.3-py3-none-any.whl

Download URL	bugcam-0.8.3-py3-none-any.whl
Size	166.5 kB
Tags	Python 3
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`679e4bbb0ea20579dfb9b4ef24f76b936ec74f4f25f38206d5b2278d2842831a`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`41cd91b0f0f25bca9024b7251f97a23c80c323dbd0560aed713a511276c738ef`
Upload date	Jul 20, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	No
Uploaded via	`poetry/2.4.1 CPython/3.14.6 Linux/7.1.3-arch1-3`