Physical System

There are experimental buildings with an area of 5,430 square meters that can accommodate about two hundred cows. There is a milking parlour with a six-point tandem type. The cows stand one behind the other, are milked, and move forward. The operator's access to the udder is lateral. Milking is much slower, as it allows fewer animals per shift, but the inspection of each cow is more thorough.

The Animal Production Laboratory focuses on the use of NIRS for nondestructive testing of feed, meats, oils, and other agricultural products. It is involved in national and international research projects aimed at enhancing food integrity and traceability. NIRS enables rapid, efficient analysis, critical for ensuring product quality and safety throughout the food chain.

The irrigation facility located at the "Rabanales Experimental Farm" boasts unique features that make it especially suitable for testing or validating various agri-food products or services. It stands out in Europe for incorporating vision and artificial intelligence into its system for variable irrigation and input distribution. The field's irrigation installations or equipment comprise a pivot and a linear, forward-moving system.

The Rabanales Experimental Farm includes 30 hectares dedicated to research in fruit cultivation and crop nurseries, with an advanced irrigation system powered by photovoltaic energy. This system, remotely monitored via fibre optic connection, enables precise and efficient management of water and nutritional resources.

The "Rabanales Experimental Farm," located 7 kilometres east of Córdoba, Spain, spans 200 hectares and is a leading centre for agricultural research. The farm is equipped with advanced robotic machinery, including tractors with automatic guidance systems and robotic quads, designed for precision farming trials. Its irrigation infrastructure features AI-powered, solar-driven systems that adapt water and input distribution based on satellite data and soil analysis, ensuring efficient resource use.

The test fields at the RISE Testbed for Digitalised Agriculture consist of five fields, each approximately 1 hectare in size, with a total area of 8 hectares. The fields and their collected data can be used to test products and services under real-world conditions with AI and autonomous vehicles for agriculture. Various crops are cultivated on these fields, and one field is designated as a bare ground area for testing autonomous agricultural machinery.

The spraytent (10x20 meters) is a facility for testing perception units typically used in automated or robotised machines, i.e. cameras, radars or lidars. The test equipment consists of a mounting rig (for the sensor units being tested), the water spray and the object used for the detection test. There is also a contrast board to measure and document the visibility through the water spray during the test. Both the water spray and the light intensity can be adjusted depending on the use case.

The AstaZero FLXZone is a flat asphalt surface of approximately 170 m x 130 m. The area has a control tower for test monitoring in a safe location. FLXZone is highly customisable, allowing for different test scenarios using e.g road lines or any kind of objects in the area. A private 5G-network (NorthStar) is accessible in the area, allowing for extremely fast data transfers and 5G network slicing. The facility is modelled in a digital twin for use in simulation and correlation tests.

The main crop is silage maize and mash (26 hectares), followed by over 11 hectares of Medicago sativa; 11 hectares of Italian ryegrass and 4 hectares of triticale for silage are also sown on the farm. In this company, research is conducted to develop methods that allow the reduction of pesticides, the decrease in the use of fertilisers and herbicides, and the conservation of water and energy.

Additionally, there is a small herd of 16 Piedmontese cattle raised for meat. In this farm, there are also two advanced systems of robotic milking integrated with the online milk analysis system that allows continuous monitoring of parameters to assess the health status of the animal.