Using artificial intelligence to collect agricultural data

ANR OCOD project combines intelligent sensors, drones and optimization for data collection in constrained natural environments

Led by INRAE and involving FEMTO-ST, LPCA and Inria-FUN, this €580k project (2025-2029) began on January 1, 2025, with an official launch on February 6 at INRAE's Clermont Ferrand site.

It aims to optimize the collection of agricultural data in difficult-to-access natural environments using a combination of intelligent wireless sensors and drones. These data will be used to facilitate early detection of water stress or disease, and limit the use of inputs (fertilizers).

FEMTO-ST's work on the ANR OCOD project will focus mainly on optimizing the flight plans of drones so that they can collect aerial images, temperature and humidity data, and communicate with sensors on the ground, without having to stop directly above each sensor.

The aim will also be to optimize the structure of the sensor network, taking into account constraints such as energy consumption.

Karine Deschinkel, along with Mourad Hakem and Jean-Claude Charr from her team, will address these 2 emerging challenges and supervise a thesis on the subject starting in September 2025. They will propose innovative approaches based on recent optimization heuristics and learning techniques, with a full-scale test planned on INRAE's Montoldre experimental site.

Contact : Karine Deschinkel

Does the i-motif structure of DNA exist in the cell?
As part of an interdisciplinary project involving FEMTO-ST, a new scientific study is reopening the debate on the very existence of these structures in DNA and their potential therapeutic interest in cell biology for the treatment of certain cancers.
Read more
Pink October: A smart bra project
Zeina Al Masry talks to France 3 TV about her innovative connected bra project for the early detection of breast cancer.
Read more
Vincent Giordano,winner of the EFTF Award 2024
This award recognises a career spanning more than 35 years of research into frequency metrology, including the development of sapphire oscillators.
Read more
FEMTO-ST celebrates its 20th anniversary
Surrounded by its co-supervisors and partners, the FEMTO-ST institute celebrated its 20th anniversary on Wednesday 26 June in Besançon.
Read more
John Dudley appointed senior member of the institut universitaire de France
A member of FEMTO-ST's Optics Department and professor at the University of Franche-Comté, John Dudley has been appointed to a Fundamental Chair in senior category of the Institut Universitaire de France
Read more
Laser nanofabrication: nanopillars emerging from sapphire
Femtosecond lasers are well known for their ability to cut materials with extreme precision and texture surfaces. A FEMTO-ST team has achieved a world first, opening up a new use for these lasers.
Read more
Best paper award on BIOSEC 2024
Raniya Ketfi, Zeina Al Masry, and Noureddine Zerhouni have been awarded the Best Paper Prize at the 17th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies
Read more
Mayra Yucely Beb Caal awarded "Female Science Talents Intensive Track Champion 2024"
A PhD student in FEMTO-ST's micro and nanorobotics team, she is one of 20 talented women from 15 countries, each making a significant contribution in their scientific field.
Read more
Two Best Paper awards at Photonics West
Mathilde Hary and Maxime Romanet win two of the 5 awards for best oral presentations at the world's leading optics-photonics conference
Read more
John Dudley awarded EPS Prize for Research into the Science of Light
This award – jointly with Goëry Genty from Tampere University – recognizes their pioneering contributions to ultrafast nonlinear fibre optics.
Read more