5th International VDI Conference - Smart Farming

Registration & Welcome Coffee

Chair’s Welcome and Opening Address

I. What’s Next in Smart Farming

Opening Keynote

Accelerating Crop Innovation with CRISPR Technology

• Using CRISPR to accelerate the pace of development of new crops
• The technology provides consumers with real benefits through better fruits and vegetables (i.e., Pairwise’s work and mission)
• Moving forward, CRISPR to be used to further enable innovations in production, supply chain, and other areas

Tom Adams, CEO, Pairwise, USA

Smart Sensor Technology – How a Tractor Implement Obtains Intelligence?

• Intelligent sensor technology for wildlife detection
• Camera-based seedbed preparation – The implement optimises the seedbed with the help of sensors
• The importance of sensor technology on implements for future applications (automated or autonomous)

Stephan Ackermann, Director Product Management, PÖTTINGER Landtechnik GmbH, Austria

New Digital Services Directly on the Machine – Open, Neutral, Reliable

• The challenges: A new way of collaboration is needed
• The approach: A joint vision & framework
• The benefits: For farmers, contractors and eco-system partners
• The implementation: The status and further roll-out 2021ff

Thomas Kirste, Head of Business Development & Micha Münzenmay, Head of Technology & CEO, both: NEVONEX, Germany

Why Safe Positioning is Vital for Autonomous Vehicles

• The limits of positioning in agriculture today
• Accuracy vs. Integrity
• Achieving a safe position

James Szabo, Agriculture Autonomy Product Manager, NovAtel, Canada

Lunch

II. Ag Data Standards & Collaboration

Hardware to Insights: Value, Scale and the Role of Standards in IoT

• Scalable deployment of on-farm IoT systems and challenges during implementation
• How to deal with proprietary data formats and semantics, as well as ad-hoc cloud solutions
• Industry-wide standards will assist in overcoming challenges and enable scalability
• Examples from AgGateway and Syngenta’s implementation

Dr. R. Andres Ferreyra, Data Asset Manager, co-author: Dr. Diganta Adhikari, Head of On-Farm IoT, both: Syngenta Digital, USA

Agricultural Industry Develops a Standard for Data Exchange

• AEFs vision for digital farming
• Data sharing: What does it really mean?
• Ag Industry as part in EU large-scale pilot ATLAS
• Infield communication as part of digital farming

Dipl. Ing. Norbert Schlingmann, General Manager, Agricultural Industry Electronics Foundation AEF e.V., Germany

The ADAPT Data Model. Yet Another Data Exchange Format?

• One purpose, one format – Why there are various data formats in agriculture
• Data Format vs. Data Transport
• The ADAPT Data Model
• AgGateway as intermediary of different contexts

Frank Wiebeler, Freelancer for DKE Data GmbH&Co KG, Germany

Networking & Coffee Break

OEM Keynote

Use of Consumer Electronics for On Board Machine Monitoring and Data Visualisation

• Cost effective, flexible and real time visualisation of data
• Enhanced mapping functionality
• Process optimisation based on live machine performance data
• Consumer electronics in the future of machine data

Mark Phelan, Product management specialist, AGCO GmbH, Germany

III. Ag Law

Data Rights and Data Transactions for Smart Farming

• Data as a ‘non-rivalrous resource’ for better farming
• Uncertainty as to the applicable rules to govern agricultural data likely to inhibit innovation and growth
• Who ‘owns’ agricultural data?
• Principles for transfer and use of data in agricultural data ecosystems

Prof. Dr. Hans Schulte-Nölke, Director of the European Legal Studies Institute & Prof. Dr. Mary-Rose McGuire, Chair for Private Law, Intellectual Property Law, German & European Civil Procedure, both: Osnabrück University, Germany

Ag Data Contracts: Increasing Transparency Between Farmers and Tech Providers

• Legal issues affecting agricultural data
• Ag Data Transparent certification standard for tech companies
• How and why companies should develop an Ag Data Use Policy

Todd J. Janzen, Administrator, Ag Data Transparent, USA

End of Conference Day One

Get-together

IV. Startup Session

This session will give three startups a chance to briefly introduce themselves. Learn what these new players’ perspective on smart farming in 2021 is:

Importance of Mixing Agriculture Data in Precision Farming and Carbon Farming

• Different types of available Ag Data sources
• Precision Farming: A concrete example of collecting and analyzing different Ag Data
• Carbon Farming: How multiple Ag Data could help monitor and report the CO2 emissions Carbon Soil storage
• What are the AI values in Agriculture?

Francois Thierart, CEO and Co-founder, MyEasyFarm, France

From Reflections to Insights: The First Digital Entomologist

• Development of insect monitoring using LIDAR and LEDs
• Field-readiness and validation of new insect monitoring technology
• The case for digital insect monitoring

Laurence Still, Data Team Lead, FaunaPhotonics, Denmark

Under-canopy: The Missing Piece in Agricultural Autonomy and AI

• Challenges in GPS Denied Real-World Autonomy
• The need for under-canopy sensing
• Converting under-canopy data to plant-health measurements

Chinmay Soman, PhD, Co-founder & CEO, EarthSense Inc., USA

Networking & Coffee Break

Interactive Round Table Session

During the interactive Round Table Session, we invite you to directly engage with other experts. The discussions are moderated by experts in an array of fields revolving around smart farming. Discuss and identify challenges within your sector as well as problems, needs, and solutions. Choose your preferred topic from the list below and introduce your own experiences and questions.

1. Agricultural Data Management Quo-Vadis – Dr. Johannes Sonnen, Head of Product & Partner Management, DKE-Data GmbH & Co. KG, Germany
2. Safety and Robustness of Autonomous Agricultural Machines – Darcy Cook, P.Eng., VP Engineering/GM, JCA Technologies, Canada
3. Agriculture post Covid-19 – Accelerating Innovation – Benjamin Subei, Principal, Boston Consulting Group, Germany

Lunch

V. Automation and Robotics

AI Empowered Modular Robotic Farming – Towards Affordable Solutions for Agriculture

• Modular system approach for affordable robots
• AI for autonomous mobile robotics
• 'Swarm learning’ for precision farming

Thiemo Buchner, Project Lead Contadino, Artificial Intelligence (he[a]t), co-authors: Oliver Horeth, ML Scientist & Andreas Mandl, Head of Robotics and AI Products, all: Continental AG, Germany

About Evaluating Localized Spraying Performance from the End User Perspective

• Sustainable crop protection & localized spraying recent development
• About end-users’ expectations and industrial quality
• A new way of assessing the performance of chemical reduction, leveraging agronomy and statistics

Colin Chaballier, General manager, co-author: Matthieu Hemmerle, Agronomy and sensors manager, both: EXXACT Robotics, France

Networking & Coffee Break

Gold Standard of Soil Preparation with Autonomous Electric Tractors

• Soil preparation evolution and history
• Implements and technics for arable land
• Computer vision and sensors role in defining the soil condition
• Can AI fix the gaps of today‘s agriculture practice?

Bakur Kvezereli, CEO and Founder, Ztractor Inc., USA

The Farm of the Future – The ‘Hands Free Farm’

• The evolution of farming to become autonomous
• Retrofit refinement and adoption for tasks
• Out of the box and industry thinking
• Farm not just autonomously but farm well

Jonathan Gill, Mechatronics Researcher & UAV Pilot, Co-creator of ‘The Hands Free Hectare’ &’ Hands Free Farm’, Harper Adams University, UK

Closing Remarks

End of Conference