Has digital twin technology come of age?

Experts say data can help farmers reduce risk and uncertainty – helping producers increase their profits by  modelling “what if?” scenarios.

Ways of creating digital models by combining environmental and financial data will be discussed at this autumn’s Agri-TechE REAP conference on 8 November. 

With the theme Making Sense of Agriculture, the event will include a keynote speech by Elizabeth Fastiggi, head of worldwide business development for agriculture at Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Robotics

Ms Fastiggi sees automation playing an increasingly important role in agriculture – especially with the broader adoption of robotics and computer vision in farming.

Belinda Clarke, director of the business networking organisation Agri-TechE, said: “Progressive farmers in our membership, want to use their data for smart decision support and to increase automation on-farm.

“The technology to create digital twins for farms, that show in multiple dimensions the environmental impacts, how the system works, business revenues and nutrient flows – and, crucially, where everything is located – are fast becoming a reality, but there are still technology hurdles and gaps.

“Universal internet connectivity and interoperability are among the big ones, but there is also the matter of human interpretation of the models by those who know and understand the land and livestock. It is vital that the technology is farmer-centric.”

A good example of this trend is the Small Robot Company, which is rolling out its ‘per-plant’ farming service commercially – just five years after it first debuted its concept in the REAP Start-up Showcase.

Small Robot Company co-founder Sam Watson Jones said: “Very soon it will be unusual for a farmer to take any decision on their farm without the support of artifical intelligence – and for a farmer to apply a blanket application of anything in their field.”

For full conference details and tickets, please visit reapconference.co.uk.