AgriFoRwArdS Newsletter Issue 9 - July 2022 Edition

Welcome to the 9th issue of the AgriFoRwArdS CDT Newsletter. Scroll down to find out what has been happening within AgriFoRwArdS, and the wider Agri-Food Robotics community, recently.

Make sure to follow us on LinkedIn to keep up to date with all the latest news and activities!

Robot Lab Live 2022

The UK Festival of Robotics is a week-long celebration of UK robotics research and innovation, hosted by the UK-RAS Network. The festival, which this year, ran from 18th to 24th June 2022, aims to engage the public with robotics, artificial intelligence and automation by bringing together a variety of events from across the country.

The festival's flagship event is the annual Robot Lab Live session, which this year occurred on the 22nd June. Robotics laboratories from throughout the UK took part in the session, which showed twelve virtual showcases of cutting edge robotics technology simultaneously and live on YouTube. All showcases can be seen on YouTube here.

The AgriFoRwArdS CDT students were involved in two of the twelve showcases.

Students at the University of Lincoln worked alongside colleagues from the Lincoln Centre for Autonomous Systems (L-CAS), the Lincoln Institute for Agri-Food Technology (LIAT) and the Lincoln Agri Robotics (LAR) research group, to showcase the cutting edge agri-tech work ongoing at the University's Riseholme Campus, in their demonstration 'Intelligent Robots for Fresh Fruit Harvesting'. Find out more about the demonstration with a behind the scenes look on the Student Blog here.

CDT Students at the University of Cambridge joined their colleagues from the Bio Inspired Robotics Lab (BIRL) to demonstrate the work taking place in their lab, with their showcase titled 'Tasty Hands: Edible and Biodegradable Soft Robots of the Future!'.

Over 1600 people tuned in live to watch the event and there were lots of wonderful inspiring conversations ongoing within the chat. When asked about the event, UKRAS staff said

it was clear that all the teams had put a lot of time and effort into their demonstrations, and it really did pay off.

A Visit From Boston College Students

Students from the AgriFoRwArdS CDT have taken part in various outreach activities over the last year, such as British Science Week (which you can read about in the previous newsletter). These activities aim to raise awareness of robotics research, and encourage school and college students to engage with STEM subjects.

On 8th June 2022 students from the Boston College Institute of Technology visited the University of Lincoln's Riseholme camps for an introduction to the use of technology within agriculture.

The Boston College Institute of Technology is a Lincolnshire Institute of Technology initiative, and part of a wider group of centres across Lincolnshire, which focus on agri-tech, food manufacturing, engineering, energy and the digital sectors.

The AgriFoRwArdS CDT students held an interactive session as part of this visit, aimed at introducing the Boston College students to some of the robotics used within agriculture. The session was very well received by the students, who were thoroughly engaged and asked many interesting questions.

AgriFoRwArdS Research Disseminated Far and Wide

Now that Covid restrictions are easing more and more, and international travel is now possible, the academic community are beginning to once again come together in person to share their knowledge and research.

International conferences are a fantastic opportunity for our students to disseminate their research to a world wide audience, and so we are very excited when our students have papers accepted to such conferences.

Some of the amazing research being presented includes;

• Paul-David Zuercher attended the 12th Conference on Learning Factories (CLF) in April 2022 in Singapore, and presented his paper 'Optimising virtual reality training in industry using crowdsourcing'.
• Willow Mandil had a paper accepted to the Robotics Science and Systems (RSS) Conference, which features the frontiers of robotics research worldwide. Willow attended the conference, held at Columbia University in New York, to present his paper ‘Action Conditioned Tactile Prediction: Case Study on Slip Prediction’ which he wrote in collaboration with University of Lincoln Academics Amir Ghalamzan and Kiyanoush Nazari.
• Amie Owen travelled to Italy for her first international conference, the Practical Applications of Agents & Multi-Agent Systems (PAAMS) Conference. Amie will be presenting her paper ‘Towards the Application of Multi-Agent Task Allocation to Hygiene Tasks in the Food Production Industry’ in July.

Industry Site Visit: Algae Innovation Centre, University of Cambridge Botanic Gardens

On the 10th of June, CDT students visited the Algae Innovation Centre (AIC) based in the Botanic Gardens at the University of Cambridge.

The AIC is a Centre for Excellence, with test and scale-up facilities which connect the entire pipeline of algal research, from strain selection and improvement, through harvesting and processing, to development of underpinning technology and engineering solutions.

The AIC's laboratory is a secure, research grade glasshouse on a sealed foundation with gross floor area of 164 square meters. It has laboratory grade benching, RO water supply, environmental data collection, access to autoclaving, centrifugation and a wide range of algae reactors.

Dr Mehrshahi kindly gave a tour of the glasshouse, introducing the students to the process of algae growth and research that Prof Smith's research group conducts. There was opportunity for discussion regarding how robotic technologies could be implemented in production of algae based food supplements. These discussions continued during dinner, when the students attended a local restaurant.

The AIC provides training courses for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, and the AgriFoRwArdS CDT is looking forward to future collaborations with the AIC.

We would like to thank the AIC staff, Dr Payam Mehrshahi and Prof Alison Smith, for facilitating this wonderful opportunity.

Joint Robotics CDT Conference

The AgriFoRwArdS Centre for Doctoral Training is the only UK robotics CDT focussed on agri-food. As well as AgriFoRwArdS, there are three other robotics-focused CDT's within the UK;

• EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Agri-Food Robotics: AgriFoRwArdS (University of Lincoln, University of Cambridge, University of East Anglia)
• EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Autonomous and Robotic Systems: FARSCOPE (University of Bristol, University of the West of England)
• EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Autonomous Intelligent Machines and Systems: AIMS (University of Oxford)
• EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Robotics and Autonomous Systems (Heriot Watt University, University of Edinburgh)

Each year these CDTs come together to attend the Joint Robotics CDT Conference, with each CDT taking a turn to host. Held at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory and the Bill Brown Design Suit, this year’s Conference was hosted by the FARSCOPE CDT between the 12th and 14th June.

Find out more about the conference, and the students' experience on the Student Blog.

AgriFoRwArdS CDT 3rd Annual Conference

We were very pleased to be able to welcome delegates to the University of Lincoln for the AgriFoRwArdS CDT's 3rd Annual Conference on the 22nd and 23rd June 2022.

The Annual Conference is a key event in the CDT calendar, and this was the first time we have been able to hold the event in person due to Covid-19. The aim of the conference is to share research, ideas, experiences, innovation, and technology. We want to allow delegates to expand their knowledge, strengthen their practice and facilitate collaborations and pathways to impact. This is why we are so excited to have been able to give our community this first real chance for collaboration and networking.

Really got me thinking about how to improve my own research – inspirational

The theme of the 2022 Agriforwards Conference, ‘Autonomous Robots in Sustainable Agriculture’, was inspired by the University of Lincoln’s representation of agri-robotics at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26). Click here to read more about the CDT at COP26. The UK Government selected the University of Lincoln to share with COP26 its cutting-edge robotics and artificial intelligence technology, which is influencing the future of sustainable food production.

The theme allowed for inspiring keynote presentations representing a variety of aspects of agri-food robotics research.

• 'The role of agriculture in meeting the Paris Agreement’s climate goals’ by Dr Michelle Cain, Lecturer in Environmental Analytics within the Centre for Environmental and Agricultural Informatics at Cranfield University.
• 'Improving plant protection in arable and horticultural situations – the role of appropriate technologies' by Dr Paul Miller, Director of Silsoe Spray Applications Unit Ltd.
• 'Responsible development of robots in agriculture' by Dr David Rose, Elizabeth Creak Associate Professor of Agricultural Innovation and Extension from Cranfield University.

The variety of topics covered helped me broaden my perspective which was really helpful

We also heard from the inspiring AgriFoRwArdS students. Those currently studying their PhDs at the Universities of East Anglia and Cambridge presented their research to delegates. For many, this was their first opportunity to present in-person to such a diverse group of people.

The student presentations were very well received, with Professor Simon Pearson (Director of the Lincoln Institute for Agricultural Technology and CDT Co-Investigator) saying,

The quality of the student presentations and the science is really impressive. They are exceptionally diverse and of exceptional quality

Well organised event. Great development opportunity for the students

The Conference Dinner was hosted in the grounds of the Old Hall, at the University of Lincoln’s stunning Riseholme Campus. Delegates were given the opportunity to explore the Riseholme Campus and see the ground-breaking work ongoing within the agri-robotics sector.

Delegates enjoyed the drinks reception while overlooking the beautiful Riseholme lake, giving a stunning setting to enjoy relaxed conversation. A three-course dinner was then served in a marquee, with the sides open so that delegates could continue to enjoy the charming views.

The setting for the dinner and marquee were excellent. Ordering the sun was a good idea

Once all presentations were complete, CDT Director Professor Marc Hanheide led the voting for the Conference awards. The audience voted live for the Best Student Presentation, the Best MSc Poster, and Most Entertaining Presentation.

• Best Student Presentation - Haihui Yan, AgriFoRwArdS Cohort 2 - 3D Printing Soft Robotic Grippers for Automated Strawberry Harvesting
• Best MSc Poster - Garry Clawson, AgriFoRwArdS Cohort 3 - Applications of Distributed Ledger Technologies in Robotics
• Most Entertaining Presentation - Prof Nick Hawes, University of Oxford - Mission Planning in the Wild: Towards Autonomous Robot Missions for Environmental Monitoring

Two of our wonderful AgriFoRwArdS CDT Industrial Partners generously donated the prizes for these conference awards, The Institution of Agriculture Engineers (IAgrE) and Agri-TechE. Winners received a £50 book voucher and student winners also benefit from a free membership to one of these generous prize sponsors.

Thank you again to everyone involved in the planning, organisation and running of the conference.

Thank you to all delegates for making the AgriFoRwArdS 3rd Annual CDT Conference such a successful event.

AgriFoRwArdS CDT Summer School 2022

The Summer School is one of the AgriFoRwArdS CDT's key annual events. The event aims to bring together all of our CDT students to collaboratively work towards a solution for a real-world challenge. It makes it a real highlight of the students' calendars.

This year the University of East Anglia partnered with Defra's Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) to deliver the AgriFoRwArdS CDT Summer School, 'Technology for Food From Water'. The event brought together computer scientists, data scientists, food technologists, and roboticists with Cefas fisheries scientists at the UEA’s new £7.4M engineering centre, Productivity East, to consider the role of automation, robotics, and machine learning in future fisheries technology.

Students were tasked with creating a business and design, develop and build a robot for catching and cooking fish. Fishing was divided into a number of tasks that could potentially be automated in future, with a focus on data science (selection of fishing grounds for profit maximisation), robotics (casting a fishing line), machine learning (sorting fish by species), and food technology (automated cooking).

During the week students heard from various internal and external speakers, who covered a diverse range of topics, including,

• An Introduction to CEFAS, by Dr John Pinnegar and Dr Kieran Hyder, CEFAS
• About Entrepreneurship, by Prof Graham Finlayson, University of East Anglia
• The fishing industry, by John Burton, CEO of Worldwise Foods Ltd

On the Tuesday the group visited the Cefas Laboratory at Lowestoft for a series of presentations and discussions with experts.

The remainder of the week saw a hackathon style event that was a hot house for new ideas and creativity. Students explored their ideas through a combination of research and prototyping. By Thursday evening, the students were able to demonstrate a prototype automated fishing system consisting of a robot arm holding a fishing rod, which hooked and reeled in fish. Fish were then classified using a mobile phone-based machine learning system. A costed, end-to-end design was discussed that included an innovative, containerised cooking system.

There was also room for some down time, with the students enjoying wonderful fish and chips followed by some fun activities on the beach.

The CDT collaborate with our Industry Partners for these events, as they are are a great opportunity for fast and real solutions. If you are interested in collaborating on a future Summer School, or similar event, please email us at agriforwards.cdt@lincoln.ac.uk.

With massive thanks to Robert Blackwell and Kieran Hyder from Cefas for their hard work in making this years Summer School a success.

Quarterly Research Progress Meeting

The students gathered for their Quarterly Research Progress Meeting in May, the first opportunity all the students, from Cambridge, East Anglia and Lincoln, have had to meet each other in person due to the restrictions of Covid-19.

A big thank you to Cambridge for organising the wonderful day.

To read more about the event, please visit the Student Blog here.

Student Social Activities

From the student led Drink Outside the Box, to hikes in the Peak District, The AgriFoRwArdS students love a social get together! Find out more about what it is really like to be an AgriFoRwArdS student on the Student Blog here.

Thomas Bohné

Dr Thomas Bohné is the Founder and Head of the Cyber-Human Laboratory, based at the Institute of Manufacturing, University of Cambridge.

At Cambridge, Thomas is also leading research on human-oriented digital systems, and the impact of digital technologies on human behaviour as part of a new EPSRC Made Smarter Innovation Research Centre. With his team, he co-founded and is co-leading the Augmented Workforce Initiative in collaboration with the World Economic Forum.

Thomas holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge's Department of Engineering, a MPhil from Cambridge's Judge Business School, and a MLitt from the University of St Andrews. He has been a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University, as well as having held positions at RWTH Aachen University and the University of Auckland. Thomas has also worked in consulting, investment banking, venture capital, pharma, retail, public policy and emergency response.

Thomas is a member of the Observatory for Human Machine Collaboration Management Board, and of the Strategic Technology and Innovation Management Consortium. He is co-founder, Senior Treasurer, and Executive Committee member of the Cambridge University VR/AR Society. He is former president and current Senior Treasurer of the Cambridge University Cycling Club. He is also trustee (“Vertrauensdozent”) of the UK Group of “Stiftung der Deutschen Wirtschaft”.

He has received many awards including the Institute for Manufacturing’s Research Excellence Award, IEEE Conference on Human-Machine Systems Best Paper Award, Early Career Excellence in Teaching Award, Knut Holt Best Paper Award, and Hayek Fund Award.

Beatriz De La Iglesia

Professor Beatriz De Le Iglesia is a researcher within the School of Computing Sciences at the University of East Anglia.

Beatriz was recently made a Professor, a success you can read more about here!

Currently, Beatriz is working on many interesting data analysis projects. She has been collaborating with the Earlham Institute (a research institute for plant genomics), investigating how to use images, collected within an Internet of Things environment, to derive yield estimates automatically.

Beatriz is involved in many other research areas including the below;

• Co-Investigator in the Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Emergency Preparedness and Response at King's College London - Part of the Novel Technologies theme, working in collaboration with Public Health England to improve current syndromic surveillance systems. Beatriz's input has involved the collection and analysis of twitter data for syndromic surveillance to understand if Twitter may provide a signal for specific syndromes (e.g. asthma/ difficulty breathing).
• Involved with the ESRC Business and Local Government Data Research Centre, a collaboration between the universities of East Anglia, Essex, Kent and LSE. Including the development of algorithms for clustering complex data, with application to air pollution monitoring in collaboration with UEA's School of Environmental Sciences. This is now being developed to show how these method can be used to calculate missing pollutant concentrations, enabling a more complete picture of air quality.
• Worked in methodology and algorithm development in the context of data science.

CDT Team Highly Commended at SU Awards

The AgriFoRwArdS Team received prestigious acknowledgement recently, after being recognised as 'Highly Commended for Support Service of the Year' at the University of Lincoln Students Union Awards.

Nominations were made by the students themselves, making this award very highly valued by the AgriFoRwArdS Team. Within their nomination, an AgriFoRwArdS student said that the team

do a brilliant job in supporting us at work and caring for our wellbeing

The AgriFoRwArdS Team recognises the importance of consistent support throughout each student’s journey. 50 students will go through the programme over five consecutive cohorts, and each student is seen as an individual, supported in a number of ways. Examples of the support offered include timely communications; an open-door policy; regular cohort meetings with the Academic Lead to allow 2-way communication; feedback is heard and responded to; projects are bolstered with technical support; and communication commences before students even enrol in the programme to create a sense of belonging and to alleviate nerves prior to arrival.

Kate Smith, the AgriFoRwArdS Project Manager said,

We have the opportunity to really help the students make a positive impact on their lives. To build their confidence, to help them spring board onto their next steps and increase their skills, and to let them know that they are accepted. We see each student as an individual, and are very aware that their experience within the CDT will help shape them. The nomination was very gratefully received by the team, who work hard to ensure that the students are supported and their wellbeing cared for.

Following the Awards Ceremony, another student advised that

it is the continued support from these awesome people that makes the AgriFoRwArdS CDT the best places in the country to do robotics

What better reason is there for the team to feel motivated to continue what they do!

Get to Know Zero Carbon Farms Ltd

The AgriFoRwArdS CDT are very pleased to welcome to our group of Industrial Partners Zero Carbon Farms Ltd.

Zero Carbon Farms is a cutting-edge AgTech company, which builds and operates Controlled Environment Farms, providing a future-proof and sustainable solution for growing.

They offer an innovative, technologically driven approach to growing. They have complete and real-time control over their protected growing environments, meaning every day on their farms is a perfect growing day. There are no torrential downpours, no trampling and no being eaten by animals. There is also no need for use of any pesticides.

Zero Carbon Farms use up to 90% less water and a fraction of the space required for conventional farming, meaning they are significantly more productive per meter square. They can grow more in less space, and operate within dense urban areas, bringing down food miles and reducing carbon footprint. To achieve their goal of a zero carbon footprint they also operate using 100% renewable energy.

Their first working farm can be found in Clapham, London, in a disused air raid shelter 33 meters underground. Zero Carbon Farms have been supplying retailers and restaurants from this farm for five years, and have recently achieved BRC, Red Tractor, and Field to Fork certification.

Taste is also highly individual

CDT Student Grzegorz Sochacki is currently in the second year of his PhD study at the University of Cambridge. His project, in collaboration with Beko Plc, is focused on developing a low cost soft robotic gripper to assist with cooking tasks.

National news has taken an interest in this work, realising the potential benefits for assisting in the home. A step further than just cooking, this 'Robot Chef' tastes as it goes, creating delicious scrambled eggs.

Most home cooks will be familiar with the concept of tasting as you go - checking a dish throughout the cooking process to check whether the balance of flavours is right. If robots are to be used for certain aspects of food preparation, it's important that they are able to 'taste' what they're cooking - Grzegorz Sochacki

Cambridge Supervisor Shares 'Nuts and Bolts of AI' Videos

Dr Samuel Albanie from the University of Cambridge has been working to pull together a series of videos that aim to describe, in a high level of detail, some of the latest developments in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and computer vision.

He hopes this will be a useful resource for people who want to understand the 'nuts and bolts' of recent AI developments and how the methods are implemented.

Lincoln Agri Robotics Mini Conference 2022

In June, we saw the Lincoln Agri-Robotics (LAR) project (funded by Research England’s Expanding Excellence in England Programme) hold a three-day academic mini-conference at the University of Lincoln’s Riseholme Park Campus. One of the aims was to provide an event that enables dialogue for staff and students and opens new possibilities for cross-disciplinary research in agri-robotics.

The three days consisted of presentations, interactive sessions, keynote talks, and panel discussions, delivered by internal and external speakers.

The daily keynote talks, delivered by Professor Mat Goddard and Professor Dirk Schaefer and Professor Megan Povey (University of Leeds), really set the tone for the mini conference. Professor Dirk Schaefer spoke about connecting the dots between industry and academic research, which provoked thoughts about cross-disciplinary research and where it can lead.

Guest speakers stimulated interesting discussion with the following themed sessions:

• MULTI-OPERATOR CONTROL OF CONNECTIVITY-PRESERVING ROBOT SWARMS USING SUPERVISORY CONTROL THEORY (Genki Miyauchi, University of Sheffield)
• ON BALANCING FAIRNESS AND EFFICIENCY IN CO-OPERATIVE AGRICULTURE ROBOT FLEET COORDINATION (Marin Lujak, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid)

On the final day of the mini conference, we saw a panel discussion from Lincoln’s Professor Simon Parsons, Professor Elizabeth Sklar, Associate Professor Greg Cielniak and Professor Marc Hanheide. They had an interesting discussion about where Agri-Robotics at Lincoln started, where it is now, and their hopes for the future. Discussions also touched on what challenges are on the horizon for Agri-Robotics; themes included scalability and ethical implications.

To find out more about our research project please head to the LAR website.

If you have any comments, information or news you wish to share with the AgriFoRwArdS community, please do get in touch - We'd love to hear from you.

The AgriFoRwArdS CDT Delivery Team - agriforwards.cdt@lincoln.ac.uk

Visit us on the web at www.agriforwards-cdt.ac.uk and don’t forget to subscribe to the AgriFoRwArdS CDT YouTube channel, and follow us on LinkedIn.