Multi-purpose physical-cyber agri-forest drones ecosystem for governance and environmental observation
SPADE project coordinator Prof. Dionysis Bochtis and Dr. Aristotelis C. Tagarakis, together with Dr. Dimitrios Kateris are guest-editing a Special Issue on “Optical Sensing for Agricultural Applications” for Remote Sensing Journal.
Submission deadline: 31 August 2023
After a development period, SPADE’s inaugural drone flight was carried out with success. This important occasion for SPADE took place in the Balearic Islands and was made possible by the great work of partners such as Any Solution, Cooperativa Agrícola de Sóller and Mallorcan New Potatoes.
These drones will be used to map and monitor crops, supporting farmers and agriculture cooperatives in the early detection of plagues and diseases and in a better and sustainable management of their exploitations.
This specific flight mostly focused on making sure the involved parties become familiarized with the drones, their remote controls and interfaces. Outside of ensuring the drone works correctly, the main purpose of this activity was to observe how phantom 4 (mainspectral) works and if all automatically generated pictures (RGB, NDVI, GNDVI, LCI, NDRE and OSAVI formats) are displayed correctly.
This flight marks a key step in SPADE’s ambitious journey, paving the way for additional discoveries and a deeper understanding of fostering, cropping and livestock farming.
On June 14th 2023 the headquarters of the Agri-food Cooperatives of the Balearic Islands hosted a Digitalisation Day and Matchmaking Event that enabled the presentation of SPADE to a multitude of stakeholders of the agrifood sector.
It was a very interesting event organized within the frame of Horizon 2020 project PLOUTOS and the main goal was to share some examples of digitalization applications within the agriculture sector. This meeting facilitated individuals to engage with company representatives, inquire about their specific digital requirements and find suitable matches to fulfill those needs.
Marga Morey Cortès from Agricultural Cooperative of Sóller and Pierrick Le Guillou from Anysolution, successfully introduced SPADE, discussing the potential uses of drones for pest prevention and detection.
From June 5th until June 10th, 2023, the University of Rennes became the host of the annual International Conference on Information and Communication Technology for Sustainability (ICT4S2023). SPADE, represented by the ECLIPSE foundation, introduced the pilot projects using drones to improve sustainability in agriculture and forestry. The participants ranged from government and industry representatives to policymakers and students, who showed a strong interest in the pilot initiatives that employ drones to enhance sustainability in agriculture and forestry
The positive feedback received from various stakeholders on SPADE encourages us on our approach and demonstrates that innovative solutions such as those on our project can play a role in fostering a greener and more sustainable future, particularly through the implementation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) technologies applied to environmental purposes.
Under the framework of Horizon 2020 project, PLOTUS, SPADE had the opportunity to perform a cooperation meeting with ICAEURUS, a sister project of SPADE, during their visit to Any Solution facilities and Agricultural Cooperative of Sóller. The meeting took place last 19th May, in Mallorca, Spain.
The main topic behind this visit was the growing digitalization of the Agri-food sector and many relevant stakeholders were present at this event to disclose their knowledge, such as Maria Parets from Agricultural Cooperative of Sóller, Dolores Ordonez and Pierrick Le Guillou from AnySolution and Katerina Kasimati from ICAREUS. During this visit, SPADE had the privilege of introducing the project and its goals. A particular standout was the exploration of use cases related to crop monitoring and crop spraying specifically tailored for terraced crops, allowing to share insights, and assessing the progress made in both Horizon Europe projects. It was truly a remarkable opportunity to exchange perspectives and foster collaboration.
We would like to thank Agriculture Cooperative of Sóller for hosting this meeting.
OpenContinuum, with the support of Unlock-CEI and SWForum, organized a dynamic event titled “The Concertation and Consultation on Computing Continuum: From Cloud to Edge to IoT” that occurred between May 10th and May 11th at The Claridge in Brussels, Belgium (www.eucloudedgeiot.eu/concertation-and-consultation-on-computing-continuum-from-cloud-to-edge-to-iot/).
The first day of the event was concertation oriented, whereby the invited Horizon Europe RIAs which started in 2023 had the opportunity to pitch their projects and introduce the plans for the future. During the second day, the event shifted to a consultation with the goal of bringing forward thinking for the next Horizon Europe Work Programme (2025-2027).
It was during the latter that SPADE partners from ECLIPSE and TRIALOG played an active part in the event. This occurred under the framework of a 3 minutes pitch session where there was the opportunity to disclose information regarding the potential of drones as multi-purpose vehicles, in addition to their risks and added values.
On April 25th 2023, Aristotelis C. Tagarakis represented SPADE project at a webinar that was conducted as part of the Open Research Webinars series (https://opensourceinnovation.eu/).
Through a selection of state-of-the-art project presentations and demonstrations, this series of webinars introduce software research projects that help shape the future of open-source software and the IT industry. Co-organized by OW2 and the Eclipse Foundation, the webinars focus on international partners leveraging open source in European publicly-funded collaborative research and innovation programs.
This webinar enabled the chance to provide valuable information about SPADE:
Nuremberg hosted Embedded World 2023 Exhibition & Conference between 14th and 16th of March providing a valuable opportunity to engage with a large number of experts and qualified suppliers from all over the world aiming to develop ideas and concepts for the future
ECLIPSE Foundation, a partner of SPADE project, presented the project’s scope and main goals at the event. The participation with a SPADE stand enabled to showcase SPADE’s achievements to date and outlined its future goals, highlighting the importance of collaboration and knowledge sharing in advancing drone technology. In fact, learning and engaging other stakeholders in learning about the various impacts and risks of drones as multi-purpose vehicles on the “Farm-to-fork” ecosystems was the main strategy for this event.
From February 27th – March 2nd, 2023Barcelona hosted the largest and most influential connectivity event called Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023, where technology, community, and commerce gathered under one roof. This congress grouped 202 countries and territories represented via 2400 exhibitors and more than 88.500 attendees. 50% were directors and/or senior executives from top global companies, international governments, and businesses in technology.
SPLORO, through Alberto Sierra, a partner of the SPADE project, disclosed information about the project’s scope. He unveiled the project’s ambitious mission, which is to create an intelligent ecosystem through the deployment of UAVs, transforming multiple sectors such as crop production and forestry via multiple variables.
On February 15th-16th 2023, a conference and matchmaking event (Drones in Bioeconomy and Rural Logistics) was held in Salo, Finland. The conference gathered experts in the field of drones that were able to share scientific outcomes and technical challenges associated with their utilization. The participants consisted of representatives from research institutions, end-users of drone services and individuals who apply research findings in practical areas such as agriculture.
Anssi Rauhala from the University of Oulu represented SPADE and introduced the main goals of the project related with the creation of a smart ecosystem that can effectively incorporate Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) technologies for various purposes in crop production, forestry, and livestock farming sectors.
