Artificial Intelligence will bring life back to emptied Spain

A scientific team from the CETINIA group of the Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC), the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) and the University of Salamanca (USAL) is developing a digital twin with the aim of creating fleets of mobile robots capable of operating autonomously in agricultural fields. These autonomous systems will be equipped to adapt and make decisions independently in the face of any adversity.

Writing / Irene Vega

This work is part of the COSASS project (COordinated Intelligent Services for Adaptive Smart areas), whose objective is to apply Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques in rural areas of emptied Spain affected by depopulation, labor shortages and difficult working conditions. Although certain areas of these regions are highly digitalized and employ high-precision agricultural practices, the fields in general face challenges such as patchy connectivity and limited access to the electrical grid.

For the development of this project, the team of researchers has to address various critical topics such as cloud computing, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), federated learning, the development of digital twins, decentralized coordination and autonomous and adaptive decision-making. The complexity of these objectives requires collaboration between diverse partners with expertise in different key areas. USAL's BISITE Group excels in multi-device systems, sensor networks, cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT) and Edge Computing (local data processing), while the VRAIN Institute of the UPV contributes by developing federated learning systems and digital twins (digital twins) based on intelligent systems distributed in the Edge-cloud continuum.

Researchers from the Research Center for Intelligent Information Technologies and their Applications (CETINIA) of the URJC lead the part of the project focused on the development of advanced models that allow intelligent systems to coordinate among themselves in a distributed and optimized manner, as well as as in making sustainable and responsible ethical decisions for a fleet of autonomous agricultural robots. “This approach is crucial in the face of rural depopulation in Spain, known as 'Empty Spain', and its implications for agricultural abandonment and the sustainable development of areas where small and medium-sized companies cultivate dispersed land with limited resources and need to collaborate to increase their competitiveness. global”, explain the main researchers of the project from the URJC, Alberto Fernández, professor, and Marin Lujak, distinguished researcher. “The URJC seeks to implement cooperative technological solutions that improve agricultural efficiency and effectiveness, eliminating the physical difficulties of farmers and facilitating a fluid growth of agricultural production through the introduction of fleets of autonomous agricultural robots that can work tirelessly and without stress. for farmers. These solutions have enormous potential to reverse the migration of the rural population to metropolitan areas,” they add.

Two technological levels

The COSASS project, which is in its second year of a total of three, proposes actions at two levels. At the level closest to the users or data sources, IoT is used so that devices in the fields are able to adapt and make decisions autonomously in the face of adversities and problems that are not common in the system.

At a second level, in the cloud or cloud, it is allowed, through digital twins of systems and their environments, to reflect what is happening, even with predictions about what could happen when the real physical system is disconnected from its digital twin. In addition, it allows testing modifications, changes and extensions to the real system, without the need to implement these changes in it.