Join us for another systems community event 24 May, from 5:15 - 6:45pm NZ Time. We'll provide a brief update on the status of our chapter charter and share other INCOSE NZ news, before a presentation from Nick Pickering of the University of Waikato. 

Towards a Horticulture System of Systems implementing an Autonomous Survey Robot and Orchard Digital Twin
Agriculture is facing a period of unprecedented change resulting from the requirement to feed c. 10 billion mouths by 2050, while operating in an environment of labour shortages and increasing sustainability expectations. To meet these challenges many are looking to industry 4.0 technology as a solution, specifically the combination of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), in-field and digital twins. Although there have been successful prototypes and promising start-ups, the complex nature of the horticulture growing and supply chain systems creates a significant risk of mass adoption failure due to the silo’d technology approach leading to usability, availability, viability and interoperability challenges.

A joint academia/industry project is working towards a collaborative System of Systems (SoS) through the use of a shared autonomous survey robot and digital twin platform. The programme has started with kiwifruit flower counting and canopy cover identification to support grower decision making on crop loading and labour allocation, with plans to expand the collaboration into the areas of pest/disease detection, fruit estimation and harvest optimisation. This presentation explains how Industry 4.0 and a SoS approach could assist the horticulture industry to accelerate innovation and scale adoption for research, industry and government partners to be better together. Q&A session to follow. 

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