Catalogue of Services

In order to train, test, and validate AI applications, annotated datasets are needed. Wageningen Research - Field Crops can provide FAIR datasets consisting of high-quality raw images, annotations, and metadata on crops, weeds, diseases, and pests. At the moment a dataset on volunteer potato in sugar beet and onion is available. Let us know in which other datasets you are interested.

AI model training

Performance evaluation

Assessment of interoperability for AI-driven solutions

Data interoperability in the agrifood sector hinders innovation and development due to the need for many custom solutions to share data. This service helps agricultural organisations improve how they handle and share data across the entire food value chain. By implementing standardised reference data models like rmAgro (https://rmagro.org), we help to optimise your data flows and make your information systems work better together. Our team at Wageningen Research provides expert guidance in data modelling and implements reference models that align with industry standards and tests the reference models against various use cases. This promotes more efficient data sharing between different systems and organisations, reducing data integration challenges and improving operational efficiency. The service is particularly valuable for organisations looking to modernise their data infrastructure or needing to share data more effectively with partners in the agri-food sector. This service provides an assessment of interoperability for AI-driven solutions within the agri-food sector. The service facilitates conformance testing and verification of whether the related IT systems comply with relevant standards, guidelines, data space regulations, and other interoperability requirements. By evaluating the IT systems against established reference data models and frameworks like rmAgro (https://rmagro.org), the service ensures that it meets the necessary criteria for effective data sharing and integration. Wageningen Research leverages its expertise to evaluate the overall AI solution on its quality, performance, and how well it aligns with industry standards, offering insights and recommendations for improvement. This service supports organisations in ensuring their solutions are interoperable, compliant, and ready for seamless integration within the agri-food value chain.

Conformity assessment

Business Model and Market Development Support for Robotic and AI Solutions in Livestock Farming

WUR and Agro-Innovation Centre De Marke have extensive knowledge of the dairy market developments in the Netherlands and Western Europe. They are able to advise customers of these market trends, can do specific market research, and can support doing a proper business model analysis for the specific knowledge. We have dedicated business developers and a large group of specialists on the team. Additionally, the large farmers network of Agro-Innovation Centre De Marke can be used to organise feedback sessions with end-users and their dealers.

Co-innovation, test and support on sensors and practical robots for livestock farming

Provision of practical and scientifically based input and collaboration in designing robotic AI systems and components for livestock farming solutions.

Receive practical and scientific input for the (re)design of sensors and robotics; help with decision support on dairy farms that meet agro-ecological F2F criteria, located in Hengelo Gld. and Leeuwarden.
Access to high-end end-users in a country takes lots of time and effort. Thanks to the multiple regional experimental farms, Wageningen Research has a wide and easily accessible farm and dealer network. Additionally, researchers at Wageningen Livestock Research have a practical approach and know what's needed and required to implement new technologies in farms, therefore fulfilling a bridge between agronomy, technology, and ecology. By testing and demonstrating the products or services to our farm managers and farm networks in specific regions, we can gather valuable feedback and help speed up the developmental stage of the tested prototypes.

People training

Test design

Data analysis support for specific and long-term data sets for arable and livestock farming data sets

WUR experts are available for analysis or advice to extract information from large and multiple-source data sets as provided with the service “Provision of specific and long-term data sets for arable and livestock farming data from the Farm of the Future experimental farms (S00132).”
It is also possible to analyse datasets of clients that are used for the development of sensors, AI, and robotic solutions.

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

Provision of a phenotyping greenhouse with extensive sensor set - NPEC

NPEC will enable you to make accurate, high-throughput studies of plant performance possible in relation to relevant biotic (diseases, bacteria) and abiotic (light quantity and quality, nutrients, temperature, moisture, soil pH and atmospheric CO2 level) factors across a range of scales.

The experiments can be performed in a greenhouse compartment with an extensive set of sensors to measure the plant and it’s environment. In growth rooms smaller scale experiments can be performed, with a special chamber for studying the roots of plants using transparent growth media. In the open field crop measurements can be performed using the Traitseeker for RGB, spectral and 3D measurements.

AI model training

Performance evaluation

Test execution

Test setup

Provision of a virtual playground for robots

The service consists of a photorealistic digital greenhouse environment, built in a game engine.

The greenhouse is configurable to different sizes, light conditions (sun, supplementary lighting) or row spacing. In the greenhouse different crops can be placed to either test AI detection networks or complete robotic systems, as there is a ROS2 integration available. The environment is made in a way that physical properties of the objects have influence on other components or robot interactions.

AI model training

Performance evaluation

Test design

Test execution

Test setup

Provision of datasets for simulation and visualisation

In order to develop digital twins for agriculture, reliable long-term datasets on the agronomy and ecology of fields are crucial. From several long-term experiments and agricultural systems (like the Farm of the Future), datasets of fields are available with registrations of crop operations, crop measurements (e.g., timeseries of vegetation indices), yield, soil, & weather data, and data on key performance indicators. In some cases, other sensor data (tractor data, soil moisture, insect monitoring) are also available. New datasets can be developed based on specific needs.

Provision of datasets for validation of AI algorithms for livestock farming

Thanks to 30 years of data gathering at Agro-innovation Centre De Marke, multiple data sets are available. During these years, data is gathered on individual cow events, barn emissions, yields of specific and typical livestock farm crops, soil samples were taken, and feeding strategies were developed. Due to the systematic approach of De Marke, this data can be easily reused for setting up specific validation of AI algorithms. Additionally, new data can be gathered as requested.

National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology  (INRIA)

Provision of general-purpose datasets with user-specified sensor(s)

General-purpose datasets serve two primary objectives: (i) evaluating mobility algorithms and (ii) developing and assessing general-purpose AI applications. In the context of mobility algorithms, this includes classical robotics tasks such as mapping, localisation, SLAM (Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping), and navigation. Meanwhile, general-purpose AI applications focus on advancing algorithms and supporting decision support systems (DSS) for tasks such as, but not limited to, weed detection, health monitoring, growth and maturity assessment, and yield estimation in areas like arable farming, horticulture, food processing, forestry, and tree management. A significant challenge in developing AI solutions for agricultural robotics lies in the dynamic nature of agricultural environments, which fluctuate with different seasons and weather conditions. To address this, acquiring consistent and periodic data is essential for effectively monitoring these changes. This real-time data collection, often facilitated by aerial and/or ground robots equipped with user-specified sensors, is crucial for developing efficient algorithms and AI solutions. Such datasets can support the development of sensor-specific techniques or be leveraged to create multisensory algorithms, enabling more accurate and adaptable systems for agricultural applications.

Desk assessment

National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology  (INRIA)

Provision of general-purpose datasets via multisensory ground robot

General-purpose datasets serve two primary objectives: (i) evaluating mobility algorithms and (ii) developing and assessing general-purpose AI applications. In the context of mobility algorithms, this pertains to classical robotics tasks such as mapping, localisation, SLAM (Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping), and navigation. Meanwhile, general-purpose AI applications focus on advancing algorithms and feeding decision support systems (DSS) for tasks such as, but not limited to, weed detection, health monitoring, growth and maturity assessment, and yield estimation in areas like arable farming, horticulture, food processing, forestry, and tree management. A significant challenge in developing AI solutions for agricultural robotics lies in the dynamic nature of agricultural environments, which fluctuate with different seasons and weather conditions. To address this, acquiring consistent and periodic data is essential for monitoring these changes effectively. This real-time data collection, often facilitated by ground robots, is crucial for developing efficient algorithms and AI solutions. Such datasets can support the development of sensor-specific techniques or be leveraged to create multisensory algorithms, enabling more accurate and adaptable systems for agricultural applications.

Desk assessment