PHOTO: GROENTEN & FRUIT
PHOTO: ROEL DIJKSTRA
NEED TO KNOW GREENHOUSE MANAGEMENT ▶▶▶
▶ Design a greenhouse to maximise cucumber production without human interference
▶ Pre-challenge to select five competitors ▶ Bringing the best players from individual clubs together ▶Teams must include experts in both AI and cultivation management
The goal is for the teams’ algorithms to out- perform the traditional type of cultivation performed by a grower.
The desire for international participation is mo- tivated by the hope that involving teams from more countries will also produce more diverse solutions. That is why the rules state that the teams must include experts in both AI and cul- tivation management, and that a public knowl- edge institution must also be represented. This prevents a situation in which one company sends an entire team, stifling the opportunity for further cross-fertilisation.
Less intervention, more points Hemming has a simple answer to practical questions about what is and is not allowed in the Autonomous Greenhouse challenge: “Everything is allowed, but the more the teams are involved manually in the autonomous culti- vation system, the fewer points they will score.” And Hemming believes that the jury — which will be pretty knowledgeable about AI and cul- tivation management — will definitely be aware of when human hands are directly in- volved in the system. “At the end of the cultiva- tion period, in December, the teams will have to explain how their system worked and how their algorithms functioned. So, if there have been any notable movements in the cultiva- tion, and in the way in which the system has re- sponded to specific weather conditions or oth- er conditions, it will not be easy to disguise the fact that the growers themselves had been at the controls for a few moments here and there.”
Reference with ‘normal’ cultivation The latter will certainly be the case in a sixth compartment, which will be the reference greenhouse. In addition to the five teams from the competition, a team of flesh and blood growers will also be cultivating cucumbers
38 ▶ FUTURE FARMING | 25 May 2018
there. “After all, the goal is for the teams’ algo- rithms to outperform the traditional type of cultivation performed by a grower. Will that goal be achieved?” The ultimate winner will score points for pro- duction, with points being deducted for using water, energy and fertilisers, for example. But the jury will also award points to teams that have worked together most effectively, for the level of scientific innovation behind an algorithm, and for the extent to which a configuration is scalable in practical terms. According to Hemming, this will enable teams with very different starting points to compete honestly with each other to win. “One of the systems might start with a mountain of cultiva- tion data, which has been collected in previous years by one of the participating companies. Another one might go in blind, so to speak, with extremely intelligent algorithms.” The end
product is a cultivation system that collects re- al-time data and uses this to learn and respond by applying the most effective cultivation measures, unhindered by results from the past.
Growers will never be redundant Silke Hemming says that, whatever happens, the intention of the Autonomous Greenhouse challenge is not to replace growers or make them redundant. “Unless the level of growers’ knowledge is truly below par in a specific area or country. Dutch growers are already making lots of good decisions, which is why Dutch hor- ticulture is leading the way. But growers tend to base those decisions on data from the past. The type of systems being tested in the Auton- omous Greenhouse challenge will ensure that much more current management information is produced. That also applies for future projec- tions; we can set an algorithm working on that.”
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