Catalogue of Services

Design of testing protocols for physical testing

Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI)

Location

Italy

Remote

Arable farming

Food processing

Greenhouse

Horticulture

Livestock farming

Tree Crops

Viticulture

Any physical testing activity comprises three main components:

• the environment (where the tests are conducted),
• the protocol (which defines the tests to be executed and their methodology),
• and the evaluation metrics (used to assess the test results).

This service focuses on the protocol, while the environment and metrics can be designed as needed through services S00106 and S00108.

In the context of testing customer solutions within physical facilities, this service aims to create a suitable testing protocol based on the use cases specified by the customer. The components of the testing protocol defined in this phase may include:

• Defining the different phases of the protocol and their duration
• Outlining the operations to be executed in each phase
• Quantifying the effort required for each phase, including the number and qualifications of personnel involved
• Distributing testing operations over time, considering seasonal and daily variations, as well as weather conditions
• Establishing acceptable and desired variation ranges for each configurable element in the testing environment
• Determining the number of test repetitions required and their distribution across the variation ranges

To ensure a comprehensive approach to protocol design, this service involves a collaborative team of both engineers and agronomists.

Desk assessment activities for digital systems or data

Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI)

Location

Italy

Remote

Arable farming

Food processing

Greenhouse

Horticulture

Livestock farming

Tree Crops

Viticulture

Through this service, we offer customers a complete feasibility study of their digital systems and/or data, evaluating their suitability for the test use cases identified by the customer. The study involves both technical and agronomic aspects. The goal of this service is to provide the customer with a comparison between the features of the system or data submitted for review and the requirements of the use cases chosen for (possible) subsequent testing. Examples of systems and data requiring digital testing include (but are not limited to) software modules for data processing (e.g., machine vision modules), AI models, software architectures (e.g., control systems of robots), simulations, datasets collected in the field, synthetic datasets, designs of software systems, and so on. This assessment is crucial to provide customers with key information on elements of their system that need to be further developed to become “fit for testing.” It can also identify changes to apply to either the system or AgrifoodTEF’s testing facilities to meet the requirements for experimentation.

Evaluation of results of digital testing

Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI)

Location

Italy

Remote

Arable farming

Food processing

Greenhouse

Horticulture

Livestock farming

Tree Crops

Viticulture

This service concerns the processing of data collected during digital testing of a system, i.e., experimentation done in a computational environment. Digital testing enables easy collection of experimental data; however, such data then need to be suitably processed to extract information about system performance. The service applies a predefined set of performance metrics (defined either by the customer or via service S00178) to the collected data. Data collection during test execution is expected to have been done by the customer (on request, this activity can be supported by AgrifoodTEF via service S00183). The service includes all the activities needed to apply the performance metrics, including the development of any software component needed for data processing or data preparation. The output of the service is a report providing the quantitative results of the application of the performance metrics to the experimental data. The report also includes an evaluation of these results aimed at highlighting possible issues and pointing out lines for improvement.

Execution of digital testing

Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI)

Location

Italy

Remote

Arable farming

Food processing

Greenhouse

Horticulture

Livestock farming

Tree Crops

Viticulture

This service assists customers in executing digital tests using agrifoodTEF’s digital infrastructure. Tests can either be defined by the customer or designed through agrifoodTEF services (e.g., S00176, S00177, S00178). If specific activities are required to properly interface the system under test with the digital infrastructure, these can be handled by either the customer or agrifoodTEF (via Service S00180).

Support provided by this service includes general assistance during the test execution phase, such as monitoring to ensure compliance with the testing protocol or offering immediate help in identifying and resolving issues. Additionally, the service provides technical support during the test execution of the system under test, including ensuring that all necessary processes are correctly configured and running, as well as helping the customer address any unforeseen challenges that may arise when complex digital systems interact.

Finally, through this service, agrifoodTEF manages the technical infrastructure for test execution, ensuring smooth data exchange between the system under test and the agrifoodTEF infrastructure, and verifying that all testing requirements—potentially identified during the desk assessment phase (Service S00179)—are met during the actual test runs.

IoT weather predictive models and greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture

Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II

Location

Italy

Arable farming

Food processing

Greenhouse

Horticulture

Livestock farming

The service offers specialised support in developing and testing IoT solutions for agricultural weather monitoring and forecasting. Aimed at AgriTech companies, it leverages advanced technology to help farmers better understand and respond to climate-related challenges. By enhancing real-time weather insights, the service empowers informed decision-making and promotes greater resilience in agricultural practices.

People training services

Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI)

Location

Italy

Remote

Arable farming

Food processing

Greenhouse

Horticulture

Livestock farming

Tree Crops

Viticulture

The AgrifoodTEF consortium comprises a set of testing and experimentation facilities and targeted services aimed at supporting customers in the testing and validation of systems and devices based on advanced technologies. Given the technical complexity of these facilities and services and the associated complexity of many activities making use of them, many customers can benefit from a preliminary training activity. The goal of such training is to make best use of the facilities and services and fully exploit the allotted time when actual testing/experimentation occurs. Customer training – involving both technical and procedural aspects – can either be sought by the customer autonomously leveraging the documentation provided by AgrifoodTEF or directly supported by AgrifoodTEF via this service; a combination of both approaches is also possible. This service does not limit its applicability to customers that already know what they require from AgrifoodTEF. The service also provides an opportunity for customers to discuss their specific needs and requirements with our team and be directed towards the set of services in the catalogue that best suit their needs. Especially where the customer envisages an articulate testing campaign, exploring their idea together with AgrifoodTEF via this service can be very beneficial in planning subsequent activities. This service can, if needed, be integrated with services S00109 (desk assessment activities for physical systems) or S00179 (desk assessment activities for digital systems or data) to anchor its operation and possible further testing activities more closely to the specific features of the system(s) developed by the customer.

Preparation of computational test environment

Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI)

Location

Italy

Remote

Arable farming

Food processing

Greenhouse

Horticulture

Livestock farming

Tree Crops

Viticulture

To successfully conduct a digital testing campaign, preparatory activities are usually required to set up the computational environment used for testing. This service performs activities such as: - setting up the hardware resources needed to run the tests - configuring and initialising the virtual environments used for testing (e.g., Docker images, private “data rooms” for safe data sharing) - installation and configuration of required software packages and dependencies - Setting up authentication layers, user roles and credentials as needed- Migration and/or exchange of required data and ground truth annotations - installation and configuration of a simulator - importing and configuring a previously defined simulated environment - executing dry runs to check that all elements of the test environment operate as required Environment preparation is done according to an environment design provided by the customer. If needed, such design can be done by AgrifoodTEF for the customer via Service S00176. Interested customers can get support from AgrifoodTEF for the entire pipeline involved in digital testing, from the design of its other elements beside the environment (namely, the testing protocol via service S00177 and the evaluation metrics via service S00178) to test execution (service S00182) and data collection (service S00183) and evaluation (S00184). Support in interconnecting the systems under test to the digital testing environment, if needed, is available via service S00181.

Provision of datasets

Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI)

Location

Italy

Remote

Arable farming

Food processing

Greenhouse

Horticulture

Livestock farming

Tree Crops

Viticulture

During the development of systems based on AI and/or robotics, tailored data are needed to support the realisation, validation and optimisation of systems and subsystems. This service aims at providing such data. AI models are a noteworthy example of systems that require data to be trained; more generally, any system which processes data produced via artificial perception (such as images, videos, LiDAR, ultrasound, radar...) requires suitable data to be built, tested and fine-tuned. This service allows a customer to define together with AgrifoodTEF the specific features of the data that the customer’s activities require and to receive datasets precisely matching such features. Among the features to be defined are the type, number and specifications of the data streams comprised in the datasets (e.g., when multi-sensor data are required) and the range of variations encompassed by the data (e.g., variety of environmental conditions represented in a sensor stream); lower-level features to be defined concern formatting and packaging of the data.

Support in interconnecting systems to AgrifoodTEF’s computational test infrastructure

Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI)

Location

Italy

Remote

Arable farming

Food processing

Greenhouse

Horticulture

Livestock farming

Tree Crops

Viticulture

Digital testing requires interaction among several different components which have to reliably cooperate to enable the testing activities and to ensure that their outcomes reliably reflect the system’s capabilities. When digital testing of customer systems leverages AgrifoodTEF’s computational infrastructure, integration between the infrastructure and the systems to be tested is needed before the tests/experiments can be executed. If the customer does not possess the technical expertise – or does not want to devote resources – to perform the integration, this service can support them in the process. Help is provided by a team of expert engineers. This service concerns the integration of the customers’ system and/or data used for testing with the AgrifoodTEF digital testing infrastructure. In particular, integration is crucial to ensure smooth and uninterrupted communication between the system and the infrastructure that produces, collects and/or processes test data. This service also includes the development of any custom components needed to ensure a two-way integration between the system and the reference infrastructure (e.g., software components to format data or to perform transcoding).

Test and development of innovative and practical agri-food applications of the metaverse

Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II

Location

Italy

Arable farming

Food processing

Greenhouse

Horticulture

Livestock farming

The service enables agri-food industry stakeholders to harness the power of the metaverse to innovate, collaborate, and solve challenges in new and exciting ways. It creates immersive virtual environments within the metaverse that replicate real-world agri-food settings, such as farms, processing facilities, and marketplaces. These environments serve as digital replicas where stakeholders can interact, collaborate, and experiment. By leveraging immersive virtual environments and cutting-edge technology, it empowers farmers and operators to stay at the forefront of agri-food innovation in the digital age.

Interested in this service? Contact us at angrisan@unina.it

Testing of edge intelligence and IoT architectures

Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK)

Location

At user's premises

Italy

Remote

Arable farming

Horticulture

Livestock farming

Tree Crops

Testing of AI and robotics solutions leveraging edge computing and communication protocols in the IoT cloud-edge continuum. Can be a digital test (run on virtualised machines) or a physical test deployed either at the customer's premises or using the wide coverage wireless network installed in Trento valleys (Val d'Adige and Val di Non) for fruit crops (including but not limited to apples and grapes). FBK can support test design, proposing a benchmarking architecture to stress and monitor key components, helping to understand bottlenecks, allowing for better performance, lower bandwidth use, more reliability, and lower operating costs of tested solutions.