Catalogue of Services

This service includes all essential actions to gather knowledge, design, and document the client’s needs regarding Testing and Experimentation Facility (TEF) services. Through close collaboration with the client, we ensure that all technical, operational, and methodological aspects are clearly outlined, forming a solid foundation for future testing phases. By conducting these preparatory activities, we deliver a comprehensive setup analysis that serves as the entry point for subsequent testing and validation services and provision of datasets. This ensures that testing can be carried out efficiently, aligning with the client’s specific requirements while leveraging TEF’s expertise and infrastructure. Ultimately, this service streamlines the testing process, reduces uncertainties, and enhances the overall efficiency of AI and robotic solution validation.

Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI)

Test setup

Collection of test data during physical testing

Università degli Studi di Milano (UMIL)

Through this service, we offer dedicated technical systems (hardware and software) and expertise for the collection of relevant data during testing.

The scope of data collected can range from data generated by the AgrifoodTEF technical infrastructure (e.g., through the installation of IoT sensors) to the collection of data generated by the system under test to the generation of ground truth for evaluating the system. If necessary, service S00111 may be leveraged to take care of the interconnection between AgrifoodTEF data collection systems and the customer’s systems.

In addition to the raw collected data, we will also provide customers with complete documentation describing the logged features and conditions of the testing environment at the time of testing, as well as any parameter values, variation ranges and specifics required for reproducibility purposes.

Where necessary, data collection and documentation activities can require the involvement of field experts (e.g., engineers, agronomists).

Note: annotation and labelling of collected data, if needed, can be provided via service S00115.

Computer vision for automated food quality assessments

Validation of an existing automated food quality assessment solution based on Artificial Intelligence, in particular Computer Vision techniques. The service will help the solution provider check its performance using a controlled testing infrastructure, including our Food Processing Pilot Plant. The service might also include the generation of reference datasets of food samples and expected quality measures, which can be used both for validation and training of the Artificial Intelligence solution based on Computer Vision.

AI model training

Performance evaluation

Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI)

Test execution

Test setup

Data validation and processing

Università degli Studi di Milano (UMIL)

Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI)

Through this service, we offerers the ability to validate and augment the data collected during the different testing phases. Examples of operations that this service can provide include quality checks (e.g., presence of all datastreams, presence of drop-outs, technical quality such as focus or exposure of camera images, agronomic significance of data); preparation for performance evaluation (e.g., identification of the images containing selected visual markers or specific plants, association between images from the system under test and the ground truth); data processing (e.g., transcoding); and augmentation (e.g., generation and incorporation of metadata). Data labelling (e.g., to enable training of AI models) is not included as it is the object of a separate service (S00291).

Data analysis

Data augmentation

Design of evaluation metrics for physical testing

Università degli Studi di Milano (UMIL)

Any physical test activity involves three main components: environment (where the tests take place), protocol (defining what tests are executed and how) and evaluation metrics (used to assess the results of the tests). This service concerns the last element; its goal is to design the best metrics to evaluate the performance of a customer solution, taking into consideration the use cases specified by the customer and the environment and protocol chosen for the tests (which, if needed, can be designed via services S00106 and S00107).

Our team will identify and define with customers the most adequate set of quantitative (i.e., based on instrumental measurements) and/or qualitative (i.e., relying on expert human judgement) metrics to assess the system functionalities of interest. This phase will involve, in particular, agronomists and experts in agricultural machinery.

Based on the defined evaluation metrics, a set of requirements for the collection of required data and ground truth annotations will also be defined accordingly. For instance, the service may lay out the specifications for dedicated data collection campaigns (possibly executed via service S00113). This phase will involve engineers and experts in AI and robotics.

On request, the output of the service will include analyses on additional environmental factors than those directly tracked through the designed metrics (e.g., seasonal effects, impact of test distribution over time on results).

Wageningen University WUR

Evaluation for Ethical, Legal, and Social Aspects (ELSA Scan) for responsible AI development

What are the ethical, legal, and social aspects (ELSA) of AI-driven technology in agri-food? Mitigation of potential risks and finding opportunities are easier by identifying ELSA aspects in early development stages, when the technology is still in the making. Examples of ELSA aspects are autonomy, transparency, and bias, but also data privacy and other legal aspects. How does your AI technology deal with ELSA aspects? A combined survey and interview help AI developers to identify opportunities and issues with ELSA in the agri-food context from the perspective of end users and more broadly, for society. For example, to better align with the sustainability objectives of the AI-driven technology. The outcomes of the ELSA scan are a list of identified key ELSA aspects and high-level recommendations to further improve the AI technology.

ELSA assessment

Evaluation of ethical aspects in agrifood technology design and development

We offer a specialised service to companies, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), that develop AI- and robotics-based products and services for the agri-food sector. Our service supports these companies in integrating ethical considerations throughout the design and development process of their AI- or robotics-based products and services. By utilising Value Sensitive Design (VSD) methods, we ensure that human values such as sustainability, fairness, transparency, and privacy are incorporated into technological solutions from the outset. Through stakeholder analysis, participatory design, value scenarios, and ethical reflection, we guide companies in creating responsible, innovative technologies that align with societal needs and ethical standards.

Desk assessment

ELSA assessment

Wageningen University WUR

Scanning as a Service for synthetic data generation and modelling

We offer a comprehensive 3D scanning and model preparation service tailored for agriculture and food applications, built on expertise developed through scanning diverse objects such as rapeseed plants, tomato seedlings, and fish. This service transforms real-world items into accurate, high-resolution 3D models, ready for use in synthetic data generation, robotics simulations, and plant phenotyping. Using tested scanning approaches—including photogrammetry with stationary or rotating cameras, DSLR, and smartphone captures—we can reliably acquire detailed image sets. Using these 3D models, your AI detection algorithms can be tested on high-quality 3D data. The data can be used to test detection algorithms, or it can be used in complete virtual environments to test robotic applications. Beyond static models, dynamic functionality can be added by assigning physics properties and enabling randomisation—altering geometry, texture, and patterns to expand dataset diversity. This allows models to be seamlessly integrated into simulation environments for testing AI, testing robotic systems, or conducting virtual experiments to test and improve the systems. Whether for research, product development, or automation, our solution delivers a scalable, future-ready platform for realistic and adaptable 3D tests.

Provision of datasets

User Experience (UX) Evaluation

This service is offered by the UsabiliLAB, which specialises in advancing the usability and accessibility of interactive products and services. The service helps companies, particularly SMEs, develop AI and robotics solutions that are not only innovative but also more efficient, effective, and user-friendlier, while considering their accessibility.

The UsabiliLAB offers assessments, including conformity regarding relevant standards, and provides actionable insights to enhance usability and accessibility across various platforms, including:

Web Pages: We evaluate and refine agricultural web platforms to make them more intuitive and accessible.
Mobile Applications: Our detailed assessments help improve the usability of mobile apps, making them more user-friendly and accessible to a wider audience.
Other Interactive Products: from software interfaces to agricultural machinery, we analyse and improve any product with a user interface, ensuring that they are easy to use and meet the needs of your target audience.