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

FEMTO-ST at MICRONORA trade fair 2022
From September 27th to 30th, more than 600 direct exhibitors and 15000 professional visitors are expected in Besançon on the international microtechnology exhibition. FEMTO-ST and FEMTO Engineering will be present.
Read more
The fastest pick-and-place robot in the world
A research team has developed a miniature robot capable of manipulating micrometric objects at unprecedented speeds. This work has been published in the prestigious American journal "Science Robotics"
Read more
Aude Bolopion receives the 2022 “Big-in-Small award”
This yearly award, from the microrobotics international community in the MARSS conference in Toronto, promotes “the best microrobotician” of the year at the international level.
Read more
FEMTO-ST : 2 full professors appointed to the IUF in its class 2022
Ausrine MARGUERON-BARTASYTE and Daniel HISSEL are among the 164 national laureates appointed to the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF) by the Minister of Higher Education and Research
Read more
How to create a chemical bond with light?
The formation of a chemical bond between two molecules often requires an activation process. Light is a stimulus that is particularly interesting
Read more
Tribute to our colleague Philippe LUTZ
Our scientific community of Burgundy-Franche-Comté has just suddenly lost Philippe LUTZ, full professor at the University of Franche-Comté and a leading figure in microrobotics and micromechatronics research at the FEMTO-ST laboratory.
Read more
Best student paper Award for Clément Carlé at the international conférence IFCS-EFTF2022
This award was obtained in the "Microwave Frequency Standards" category of this major international conference in the field of time-frequency metrology, which took place in Paris from 24 to 28 April 2022.
Read more
Daniel BRUNNER winner of an ERC Consolidator grant 2021
Daniel BRUNNER is a CNRS researcher at the FEMTO-ST Institute and has been awarded a prestigious European Research Council Cosolidator Grant of 2M € for his INSPIRE project
Read more
Daniel HISSEL awarded as « Fellow » of the IEEE society
Professor in Electrical Engineering at the University of Franche-Comté and researcher at FEMTO-ST, Daniel Hissel has been awarded as for his work on hydrogen systems.
Read more
March 8, International Women's Day
"Freedom, like Science, and Women's Rights, are fundamental issues for Humanity."

FEMTO-ST chooses to display on this day of March 8 (also charged with the serious news of the war in Ukraine), its commitment to each of these three issues.
Read more