Scientists at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence in the town of Kaiserslautern are pushing the boundaries of modern agriculture using artificial intelligence (AI) and satellite data.
According to Suedwestrundfunk news, the team is developing a system capable of precisely predicting crop growth and harvest times, providing a powerful tool for farmers across the region.
Space-based data
Central to the project are images from the European Sentinel-2 satellites, which orbit the Earth and capture the planet’s entire surface every five days.
These satellites are traditionally used to monitor natural disasters such as floods and forest fires, but the research team in Kaiserslautern is now applying the same data to agriculture.
“We have access to satellite data from two satellites that permanently orbit the Earth and provide us with images that depict the entire Earth’s surface once every five days,” explained Andreas Dengel from the institute.
“This gives us a time series of images that feed our AI algorithms.”
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Combining satellite images with field-level data
The technology does not rely solely on space-based data.
Sensors mounted on agricultural machinery gather additional information directly from fields, such as soil moisture, crop type and temperature.
This ground-level data enhances the accuracy of the AI models.
Using these two streams of information, researchers have developed a model that is currently being used to predict harvest outcomes in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
The satellite images offer a resolution of ten by ten metres per pixel, allowing scientists to identify and classify various crops, including wheat and forage plants and analyse their health and maturity levels.
Breakthrough for sustainable farming
The benefits for farmers are substantial – with better forecasts, they can determine the best times to fertilise, irrigate, or harvest, saving both time and resources.
“With the insights from better forecasting, where we have currently achieved world-leading results, we have been able to improve all models so that everyone involved, including farmers, ultimately benefits,” Dengel said.
As development continues, the team in Kaiserslautern hopes to expand the system’s use well beyond the Rhineland-Palatinate region, bringing precision agriculture to farms across Germany and potentially the world.
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