Ontologies and Artificial Intelligence Systems for the Cooperative Smart Farming Ecosystem

Abstract

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and Internet of Thing (IoT) generate large amounts of data spurring the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) based smart applications. Driven by rapid advancements in technologies that support smart devices, agriculture and farming sector is shifting towards IoT connected ecosystem to balance the increase in demand for food supply. As the number of smart farms reach critical mass, it is now possible to include AI assisted systems at a cooperative (co-op) farming level. Today, in the United States alone there are about 1,871 coops serving 1,890,057 member farmers. Hence, such advanced technologies and infrastructure when incorporated in the coop farming ecosystem can immensely benefit small member farmers who operate and maintain these independent coop entities. In this paper, we develop a connected cooperative ecosystem which defines sensors and their communication among different entities along with cloud supported coop hub. We develop member farm and coop ontologies to capture data and various interactions that happen between shared resources, member farms, and the coop that are stored in the cloud. These can then help generate AI supported insights for farmers and the cooperative. Several coop farming use case scenarios have been discussed to demonstrate the functioning of our smart cooperative ecosystem. Finally, the paper describes various AI applications that can be deployed at the coop level to aid member farmers.

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