All challenges

Large-scale process industries, such as agrofood, milk and beverage processing, are required to deploy the best available technology to reduce their impact on the local environment and reduce their contribution to sectoral and national carbon emissions. Current CIP systems consume large quantities of energy, water and cleaning chemicals and generate large quantities of effluent requiring expensive treatment in wastewater treatment plants. Reducing the resources used by CIP systems is the key challenge.

Although It is possible for the body condition scoring (BCS) of cattle to be done automatically using sensors, capturing the BCS is still done manually and therefore infrequently. Sheep farmers would like to quantify BCS either by direct measurement or by approximation from another trait (e.g. weight).

This challenge requires the use of technology to reduce the number of lambs which die every year. The two major causes of lamb mortality are exposure to the cold and infection. Low cost technologies which could identify sub-optimal environmental conditions for lambs could improve the efficiency of the sector

The overuse of anthelminthics to control worms in sheep can lead to anthelmintic resistance. Currently, farmers administer anthelmintics to all animals in the flock regardless of the health status of the individuals. Treating sheep unnecessarily can cause a build-up of resistance. To solve this problem, sheep which need to be treated should to be identified and healthy sheep should remain untreated.

Develop a mechanized/robotized solution for weed control in forest biomass plantation in France as an alternative to the use of chemicals.

The challenge addresses new technologies to facilitate the operation of grape yield prediction in quantity and quality, with non-destructive system, potentially embedded on tractors. The aim is to provide a fast and reliable method enabling an early yield estimation to all the persons involved in the viticulture area.

The main objective of this challenge is to experiment a MES Software, a paper-free integrated solution, capable of control the production and manage quality control, traceability, food safety, logistics and legal standards.

The main objective of this challenge is to experiment a MES Software, a paper-free integrated solution, capable of control the production and manage quality control, traceability, food safety, logistics and legal standards.

The main objective of this challenge is to experiment an integrated solution for wine production optimization, improving the efficiency of its farming processes and the wine’s quality. A platform innovating the precision viticulture by creating added value on top of smart agriculture best-practices, which nowadays focus mostly on monitoring processes, improving efficiency and quality of wine production through sensors-based data and advanced analytics.

Winemakers, from Douro Region, need cost-effective, adapted and robust agricultural machinery (or tools) for better soil and canopy management, mowing, spraying, harvesting operations. Machinery/Tools must work narrow terraces (no retain walls), on stony soils (eg. shale), with very high air temperatures (35º degrees), move in slopes between 20 to 50 % (11/12º to 27º).

The aim is to monitor the whole process of wine production from the time the grapes arrive to the cellar until the wine is ready to be bottled. To control wine fermentation a set of parameters need to be measured (Temperature, pH, density, total and volatile acidity, sulphur (S02 content)). The intention is to create a sensor-based platform that monitors the entire process in the cellar.

Precision technologies in fruit production

The farrowing monitoring devices available to date do not allow tracking on a large number of animals. As herd size continues to grow, a more global view of events in the building herd is a way to improve the overall performance of livestock farms. Is it possible to use a coupled night vision camera and an alert system via a smartphone?

Our routine work consist in spraying small plot field experiments (10 to 30m²) with pesticides and biologicals to evaluate their efficacy and safety. Our operators typically use a backpack sprayer with a lateral (or vertical) boom to spray the whole plot width (crop height) The challenge is to put this sprayer on wheels with a remote control : our operator stands at the edge of the field to control spraying and he is protected from direct exposure

Mites and whiteflies are very small insects (eggs are 0.2mm, adults are 0.5 to 1mm). The traditional method to evaluate insecticide efficacy consist in counting number of eggs, larva and adult insects on crop leaves before & after insecticide application at regular interval. A typical experiment requires counting thousands of leaves under a binocular lense at each evaluation date. The challenge is to automatize this tedious work using automatic pest recognition & counting on leaf pictures, despite very small pest dimensions and variable leaf shapes, with a high accuracy

This challenge aims at bringing the upstream part of the forest value chain to fully leverage the benefits of Industry 4.0. To achieve this challenge, new technologies based on the Artificial Intelligence concept to monitor, analyse and support decision making are needed along the supply chain.

How can we get information about forests standing stocks (e.g. volume), sanitary status (e.g. presence of pests and diseases), and progress of forest operations (e.g. equipment productivity) in a cheaper way and with the level of detail needed for conducting forest management?

The agricultural sector, has a very important impact in terms of GHG emissions (Greenhouse Gases). Agricultural production accounts for 10% of global GHG emissions. On the other side, it is a victim of Climate Change as it reduces resilience of production systems and contributes to the degradation of natural resources.

The challenge is to develop an automated or robotized solution for the plucking step of ducks in slaughterhouses

The challenge is to automatically and easily determine all production costs and thus find the marketing threshold for the crop harvested.

The challenge is to know at any time all the existing grain in stock in our storage equipments on the whole operating area.

The challenge is to develop methods and tools for the irrigation management of different crops such as sunflower, haricot, asparagus, chickpeas, etc.

To develop weed control systems for horticultural crops or other field crops grown according to biological methods. In particular, the system must also be effective in case of high-density horticultural crops or with a physiology development that may make hard the precision control.

The challenge is to find a synthetic and easy-to-use method to determine the right seed harvesting time and its quality, especially related to its germinative power.

The upstream operations related with biomass collection, storing and transportation have a key impact on the costs of supplying the raw materials to be biomass centrals and biorefineries and thus impact on the sustainability of the value chain. There is a need to improve the cost-efficiency of biomass mobilisation and logistics processes, enabling the implementation of the cascade use concept.

The challenge is to have medium and long range climate forecast, through automated algorithm formulas, that allows the city council authorities to effectively make decisions, allocate resources, improve operational effectiveness and prevent natural disasters weather related events, planning and helping reduce ecological footstep and environmental hazards such as wildfires and deforestation