One of the main challenges for the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) in agriculture includes the low replicability and the corresponding difficulty in systematic data gathering, as no two fields are exactly alike. Therefore, the comparison of several pilot experiments in different fields, weather conditions and farming techniques enhances the collective knowledge. Thus, this work provides a summary of the most recent research activities in the form of research projects implemented and validated by the authors in several European countries, with the objective of presenting the already achieved results, the current investigations and the still open technical challenges. As an overall conclusion, it can be mentioned that even though in their primary stages in some cases, AI technologies improve decision support at farm level, monitoring conditions and optimizing production to allow farmers to apply the optimal number of inputs for each crop, thereby boosting yields and reducing water use and greenhouse gas emissions. Future extensions of this work will include new concepts based on autonomous and intelligent robots for plant and soil sample retrieval, and effective livestock management.

Knowledge of phenological events and their variability can help to determine final yield, plan management approach, tackle climate change, and model crop development. THe timing of phenological stages and phases is known to be highly correlated with temperature which is therefore an essential component for building phenological models. Satellite data and, particularly, Copernicus’ ERA5 climate reanalysis data are easily available. Weather stations, on the other hand, provide scattered temperature data, with fragmentary spatial coverage and accessibility, as such being scarcely efficacious as unique source of information for the implementation of predictive models. However, as ERA5 reanalysis data are not real temperature measurements but reanalysis products, it is necessary to verify whether these data can be used as a replacement for weather station temperature measurements. The aims of this study were: (i) to assess the validity of ERA5 data as a substitute for weather station temperature measurements, (ii) to test different machine learning models for the prediction of phenological phases while using different sets of features, and (iii) to optimize the base temperature of olive tree phenological model. The predictive capability of machine learning models and the performance of different feature subsets were assessed when comparing the recorded temperature data, ERA5 data, and a simple growing degree day phenological model as benchmark. Data on olive tree phenology observation, which were collected in Tuscany for three years, provided the phenological phases to be used as target variables. The results show that ERA5 climate reanalysis data can be used for modelling phenological phases and that these models provide better predictions in comparison with the models trained with weather station temperature measurements.

Industry 4.0 concept has become a worldwide revolution that has been mainly led by the manufacturing sector. Continuous Process Industry is part of this global trend where there are aspects of the “fourth industrial revolution” that must be adapted to the particular context and needs of big continuous processes such as oil refineries that have evolved to control paradigms supported by sector-specific technologies where big volumes of operation-driven data are continuously captured from a plethora of sensors. The introduction of Artificial Intelligence techniques can overcome the current limitations of Advanced Control Systems (mainly MPCs) by providing better performance on highly non-linear and complex systems and by operating with a broader scope in terms of signals/data and sub-systems. Moreover, the state of the art of traditional PID/MPC based solutions is showing an asymptotic improvement that requires a disruptive approach in order to reach relevant improvements in terms of efficiency, optimization, maintenance, etc. This paper shows the key aspects in oil refineries to successfully adopt Big Data and Machine Learning solutions that can significantly improve the efficiency and competitiveness of continuous processes.

Machine-learning algorithms used for modelling olive-tree phenology generally and largely rely on temperature data. In this study, we developed a prediction model on the basis of climate data and geophysical information. Remote measurements of weather conditions, terrain slope, and surface spectral reflectance were considered for this purpose. The accuracy of the temperature data worsened when replacing weather-station measurements with remote-sensing records, though the addition of more complete environmental data resulted in an efficient prediction model of olive-tree phenology. Filtering and embedded feature-selection techniques were employed to analyze the impact of variables on olive-tree phenology prediction, facilitating the inclusion of measurable information in decision support frameworks for the sustainable management of olive-tree systems.