Customizable Platform for Autonomous Agriculture Research

自主农业研究的可定制平台

• 批准号: RTI-2023-00401
• 负责人: Muise, Christian
• 金额: $ 10.65万
• 依托单位: Queen's University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Research Tools and Instruments
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=750627
• 关键词: Customizable; Platform; Autonomous; Agriculture; Research

One of the greatest challenges we face globally today is food scarcity. Amplified by the impact of climate change, access to cultivatable land is increasingly difficult, and there is an obvious and immediate need for innovation in the space of effective agricultural practices. One of the prevailing strategies in this space is the area of small-scale vertical farming. With the advent of powerful autonomous system technology, new methods for automated agriculture - on the small-scale vertical farm setting - is ripe for innovation and real-world impact. This proposal aims to bring two powerful research areas - evolutionary computing and automated planning - to the setting of autonomous agriculture. By viewing the range of possible sensors and actuators available for indoor vertical farms as an autonomous system's environment and capabilities (respectively), we will be able to explore how modern artificial intelligence techniques can be leveraged to optimize crop yield in a controlled environment. An overarching aim of the proposal is to enable the full exploration of this setting by having as many aspects of the environment sensed and controlled as possible with modern indoor farming technology. We are proposing a single unified platform that has sixteen individually controllable growing zones for indoor aquaponics farming. All will have a shared water and nutrient system, but the isolated growing environments will allow for controlled experimentation in automation. The platform has been designed in collaboration and consultation with the Queen's Vertical Farm Team, which has established expertise in constructing indoor vertical farm solutions. The proposed expenditures are for the components necessary for the platform and would represent a one-of-a-kind research testbed for autonomous agriculture. The platform will be used to highlight the research of two research programs at Queen's University in the School of Computing. Roughly 45 HQP yearly will have direct access to conduct research with the vertical farm, and countless others globally will have the opportunity to explore the datasets produced as a result of the regular operation of the platform - releasing the data under a permissive academic licence is an objective of the project. The platform will allow the existing diverse HQP teams to exhibit their research and provide students with a very competitive skillset of working with autonomous systems; all the more crucial given the growing demand for autonomous agriculture expertise to address the global need for solutions in this space.

我们今天在全球面临的最大挑战之一是粮食短缺。由于气候变化的影响，获得可耕地越来越困难，显然迫切需要在有效农业做法方面进行创新。该领域的流行策略之一是小规模垂直农业领域。随着强大的自主系统技术的出现，自动化农业的新方法-在小规模垂直农场环境中-已经成熟，可以进行创新和产生现实影响。该提案旨在将两个强大的研究领域-进化计算和自动规划-引入自主农业的背景。通过将室内垂直农场可用的传感器和执行器的范围分别视为自主系统的环境和功能，我们将能够探索如何利用现代人工智能技术在受控环境中优化作物产量。该提案的总体目标是通过利用现代室内农业技术尽可能多地感知和控制环境的各个方面，从而充分探索这种环境。我们提出了一个单一的统一平台，有16个单独可控的种植区，用于室内鱼菜共生。所有这些都将有一个共享的水和营养系统，但隔离的生长环境将允许自动化控制实验。该平台是与Queen's Vertical Farm Team合作和协商设计的，该团队在构建室内垂直农场解决方案方面拥有专业知识。拟议支出用于平台所需的组件，并将成为自主农业的一类研究试验平台。该平台将用于突出女王大学计算机学院两个研究项目的研究。每年大约有45名HQP将直接访问垂直农场进行研究，全球无数其他人将有机会探索平台正常运行产生的数据集-在许可的学术许可下发布数据是该项目的目标。该平台将允许现有的不同HQP团队展示他们的研究，并为学生提供非常有竞争力的自主系统工作技能;考虑到对自主农业专业知识的需求日益增长，以满足全球对该领域解决方案的需求，这一点尤为重要。