Cognitive services process data into information, which ultimately serves to support decision-making and process optimization. To do so, methods from Artificial Intelligence (AI) are used as well as classical statistical analyses or control systems.
Cognitive services and the application of AI-based methods are a central component of the Fraunhofer lighthouse project “Cognitive Agriculture”. As we understand it, a cognitive system is first and foremost a system that behaves intelligently – from a human perspective – in a situation, for example by adapting its behavior depending on the context.
This can, but does not need to, include neural networks or Machine Learning methods as technology. It can also simply mean that several data sources are used and combined to make the triggering of an action safer, more sustainable, and more transparent – or simply that one or several context factors are included in the consideration, such as available sensor values.
In this sense, the key to digital transformation in agriculture lies in the availability of machine-readable data and information. These should be available in high quality, and there must be an understanding of the interrelationships. Only on this basis can cognitive services be developed, that is, systems that offer an interface that is helpful and feels natural to humans to support them in their daily work.
In our lighthouse project, cognitive services are linked to an agricultural solution or a concrete service that transforms data into information and decision support.
Among others, we are working on solutions for the following topics:
Depending on the state of the implementation, results on the cognitive solutions are presented here in more detail.
Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE