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.

With the development of AI models in most sectors of society, the importance of the data used to train and test these models has been an important concern for the AI supplier. Understanding the quality of the datasets used, especially in sectors such as the agricultural and agrifood domains where data can be rare, is thus a prerequisite to ensure the correct development of AI models and build trust regarding these approaches for society. This service aims to answer this challenge by assessing the quality of datasets provided by the client. The features of the datasets that will be analyzed are based on agreed definition by the AI community: completeness, balance, diversity, accuracy... The dataset's quality assessment will begin by establishing the list of the system's influencing factors necessary for the constitution of a database. These factors will be identified both by using LNE expertise and outside sources, such as agrifood-relevant experts. Using these factors, LNE will analyse the distribution (or weight) of the various influencing factors in the databases and compare it to that under normal conditions of use in order to assess the representativity and balance of the dataset.

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.

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. 

Today’s AI suppliers and AI users need to stand out from the competition, guarantee the performance of their algorithms or systems, and prepare to comply with the future European "AI Act" regulation, particularly with the obligation of transparency. With its dual expertise in certification and evaluation of AI algorithms, LNE has created a voluntary certification that meets this need. The aim of this certification standard is to define common requirements for the design, development, evaluation, and maintenance processes of all types of AI functionalities based on machine learning. It therefore covers all business sectors in which AI is used in order to guarantee the application of best practices that promote trustworthiness in AI. Website: https://www.lne.fr/en/service/certification/certification-processes-ai Webinar: https://www.lne.fr/fr/webinars/matinee-information-ia-act-certification-ia-l Technical documentation (FR): https://www.lne.fr/sites/default/files/bloc-telecharger/FTC-ISO-42001-LNE.pdf

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. 

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. 

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. 

By having your AI system tested by the LNE, you ensure it meets the highest standards of safety and performance, boosting your product’s reliability and trustworthiness in the market. Partnering with the LNE for rigorous testing of your AI technologies and a detailed evaluation report used for demonstrating performance enhances credibility and opens doors to new market opportunities both locally and globally. This service proposes to assess a range of agricultural devices (with respect to the physical constraints of the testing bench) integrating AI, particularly those utilising vision processing, within our advanced hybrid testing environment. Our novel hybrid testing facility consists of placing devices in the heart of a simulation projected onto a 300° screen while a motion capture system and instrumented conveyor belt measure its movements, if any. These data are continuously sent to the simulator in real time so that the device's digital twin follows the same movements and the projected environment is updated accordingly. The simulator also incorporates a physics engine and advanced sensor models, enabling a virtual sensor output to be substituted for the sensors in real time in the cases where devices require specific data and/or if the assessment is orientated toward a special kind of sensor degradation. Typical agricultural products evaluated include mobile robots for autonomous weeding or harvesting that use visual navigation (based on 2D cameras) and intelligent cameras (with AI functionalities) for crop health monitoring or livestock tracking. Other sensors commonly used in agriculture, such as 3D cameras for yield estimation, GPS for autonomous vehicle control, Lidar for terrain mapping, and sonar for obstacle detection, are also supported through data injection from the simulator.

By having your AI system tested by the LNE, you ensure it meets the highest standards of safety and performance, boosting your product’s reliability and trustworthiness in the market. Partnering with the LNE for rigorous testing of your AI technologies gives you a competitive edge, as their certification enhances credibility and opens doors to new market opportunities both locally and globally. LNE's AI performance evaluation service uses comprehensive testing datasets to assess the accuracy, robustness, and efficiency of your AI systems by comparing the outputs of the system with a dataset of reference values. By testing real-world scenarios, LNE ensures that your AI models meet industry standards and regulatory requirements, helping you improve performance, reliability, and market readiness. LNE utilises a diverse range of carefully curated datasets that simulate various operating conditions and environments in which the AI may be deployed. These datasets allow for in-depth testing of the system’s ability to process information, make decisions, and produce accurate outputs. The service covers a broad spectrum of AI applications, from machine learning models and deep learning algorithms to computer vision systems, natural language processing (NLP), and autonomous robotics. The evaluation process examines key performance metrics such as accuracy, precision, recall, response time and scalability. It also identifies any potential biases in the system, ensuring that the AI behaves fairly and ethically across different user groups or environmental variables.