bugcam 0.1.24

detect and classify insects on a raspberry pi

bugcam - Raspberry Pi Insect Detection

CLI for running insect detection on Raspberry Pi with Hailo AI HAT+.

Requirements

Hardware

• Raspberry Pi: Raspberry Pi 5 (required - Pi 4 not supported due to PCIe requirement)
• RAM: 8GB recommended
• Storage: 32GB microSD minimum (64GB recommended for multiple models)
• AI Accelerator: Raspberry Pi AI HAT+ with Hailo-8L (13 TOPS) or Hailo-8 (26 TOPS)
• Camera: Any official Raspberry Pi camera (Camera Module 3 recommended, High Quality Camera also supported)
• Cooling: Active Cooler required (thermal management essential under AI workload)
• Power Supply: Official 27W USB-C power supply recommended

Software

• OS: Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm 64-bit (latest version)
• Kernel: 6.6.31 or newer (run sudo apt full-upgrade if needed)
• PCIe: Gen 3 enabled via raspi-config (required for optimal performance)

Quick Start

# 1. Install system dependencies
sudo apt update && sudo apt install hailo-all

# 2. Install bugcam
pipx install bugcam

# 3. Download detection model
bugcam models download yolov8m

# 4. Run detection
bugcam preview

Commands

bugcam setup

Initialize bugcam by installing dependencies and downloading hailo-rpi5-examples.

bugcam setup

bugcam preview

Run live camera preview with detection overlay.

bugcam preview [--model yolov8m]

bugcam detect

Run continuous detection and save results.

bugcam detect start [--output detections.jsonl] [--duration 30] [--quiet]

Output format (JSONL):

{"timestamp": "2025-12-14T10:30:45", "class": "insect", "confidence": 0.92, "bbox": [100, 200, 150, 250]}

bugcam status

Check system status, dependencies, and hardware connections.

bugcam status           # Run all checks
bugcam status deps      # Check software dependencies
bugcam status devices   # Check hardware connections
bugcam status hailo     # Check Hailo AI accelerator
bugcam status camera    # Check camera connection
bugcam status sensor    # Check I2C sensors
bugcam status models    # Check installed models

Checks performed:

Check	What it tests	How
deps	Python packages (gi, hailo, numpy, cv2, hailo_apps)	Imports in detection Python
hailo	Hailo AI accelerator is detected	Runs hailortcli scan
camera	RPi camera is accessible	Imports picamera2 and initializes
sensor	I2C sensors are connected	Scans I2C bus for known addresses
models	.hef model files installed	Checks cache directory

bugcam models

Manage detection models.

# Download a model (yolov8s or yolov8m)
bugcam models download yolov8m

# List installed models
bugcam models list

# Show model details
bugcam models info yolov8m

# Delete a model
bugcam models delete yolov8m

Available models:

Model	Size	Description
yolov8s	10 MB	Generic COCO detection (80 classes)
yolov8m	29 MB	Generic COCO detection (80 classes, more accurate)
small-generic	18 MB	Generic insect detection
london_141-multitask	34 MB	London invertebrates - 141 species classifier

bugcam record

Record videos at intervals (without on-device detection). Useful for collecting training data or when you want to process videos later on a more powerful machine.

# Record 60s videos every 10 minutes
bugcam record start --interval 10 --length 60

# Record for 8 hours then stop
bugcam record start --duration 480 --interval 10 --length 60

# Save to custom directory
bugcam record start --output-dir /mnt/usb/videos --interval 10 --length 60

# Record a single test video
bugcam record single --length 30

# Save single video to specific path
bugcam record single --output /tmp/test.mp4 --length 10

Parameters:

Parameter	Default	Description
--interval, -i	10	Minutes between recordings
--length, -l	60	Length of each video in seconds
--duration, -d	0	Total runtime in minutes (0 = run forever)
--output-dir, -o	~/bugcam-videos	Directory to save videos
--quiet, -q	false	Suppress console output

Videos are saved with timestamp filenames like video_20251216_153045.mp4.

bugcam autostart

Manage systemd service for automatic detection or recording on boot.

# Detection mode (with AI model)
bugcam autostart enable --mode detect --model small-generic

# Recording mode (video only, no detection)
bugcam autostart enable --mode record --interval 10 --length 60

# Recording to external storage
bugcam autostart enable --mode record --interval 10 --length 60 --output-dir /mnt/usb/videos

# Manage service
bugcam autostart disable
bugcam autostart status
bugcam autostart logs [--follow]

Environment Variables

Optional configuration:

• HAILO_EXAMPLES_PATH - Custom path for hailo-rpi5-examples (default: ~/hailo-rpi5-examples)
• XDG_CACHE_HOME - Custom cache directory location (default: ~/.cache)

Monitoring

# Hailo hardware monitoring
hailortcli monitor

# System temperature
vcgencmd measure_temp

# Service logs
bugcam autostart logs --follow

Troubleshooting

# Run all system checks
bugcam status

# Command not found after install
pipx ensurepath  # then close and reopen terminal

# Camera not detected
rpicam-hello
sudo raspi-config  # Enable camera in Interface Options

# Hailo driver issues
sudo apt install --reinstall hailo-all
hailortcli scan

# Service logs
bugcam autostart logs

Development

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

License

MIT