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As part of the activities carried out by the University of Salamanca at the Agricultural Sector Fair ‘Salamaq 2024’, the conference ‘Automation of agriculture’ was presented by the specialist of the BISITE Research Group, Raúl López Blanco. At this event, the progress of the Fertwins project, developed by BISITE in collaboration with the company Nutricontrol and the Institute for Research in Agrobiotechnology (CIALE), was presented.

This project began in early 2024 and focuses on the study of predictive models through emerging technologies such as Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) and Digital Twins.

In the first phase, according to Raúl López, work is being carried out on the sensorisation of crops and the corresponding data collection in greenhouses with the aim of characterising the environment in detail and being able to apply these technologies to predict the evolution and yield of the sown land.

Through the use of intelligent agents and digital twins, he said, the aim is to monitor crops, simulate the evolution of the phenotype depending on the different agents (internal/external) and control fertigation, thus creating a scenario of intelligent agriculture. The use of XAI-based models, he added, will facilitate the prediction of crop evapotranspiration and yield, as well as the occurrence of fungal diseases.

From the application of these technologies, Fertwins aims to optimise fertigation, reduce the use of plant protection products and design a cognitive system focused on autonomous decision-making that will have a positive impact on crop yields and productivity in the food chain.