WatchEDGE, trial kicks off: artificial intelligence serving nature to monitor wildlife
The experimental phase of the WatchEDGE project for the RESTART program has started. Wild boar, fallow deer, and wolves were put under observation at San Rossore Park (Pisa) for the use-case focused on monitoring wildlife by combining artificial intelligence, next-generation sensors, and innovative connectivity solutions.
The goal is to equip operators and workers in rural areas, from farmers to national park managers, with tools capable of monitoring various phenomena, from forest fires to plant pests. Indeed, WatchEDGE is developing a technology infrastructure capable of supporting surveillance applications based on AI image processing to create an efficient and sustainable system with potential use-in this case-in agriculture, forestry and environmental protection. Wild animal management, in particular, is an increasing need, especially in rural areas, where their presence can cause damage to agriculture, as well as the spread of diseases among livestock. And damage to the environment as well: in supernumerary cases, for example, deer can slow down to a halt the regeneration of the flora on whose shoots they feed.
The project focuses on integrating processing, storage and communication to create intelligent networks capable of processing data in real time as they travel over the network. The first experiments took place in the Pineta and Torre Riccardi areas between March 3 and 5 at San Rossore Park, where continuous monitoring of large mammals has already been carried out for decades with censuses based on traditional methods. The Park views with great interest the new tools and methods that WatchEDGE is studying, as they could be used in the future as facilitators of these operations. For the first tests, WatchEDGE placed photo-traps based on prototype smart cameras with artificial intelligence for immediate classification and counting of animals, observed day and night. Doppler-effect multi-frequency radar was used to analyze the speed and movements of the fauna, which was also monitored from above by drones equipped with multispectral and thermal cameras, also used to examine the vegetation below.
For the wireless field connection between Edge Computing nodes and smart sensors, a 5G Nomad solution was chosen. Since private 5G requires an authorized operator, WiFi alternatives were tested for the time being, and thousands of videos were collected and analyzed during testing to improve AI algorithm training. In addition, nomadic Edge Computing prototypes (one integrated into the 5G Nomad system and one developed by Italtel) were tested.
Among the focuses of WatchEDGE is also the testing of SD-WAN technology, which enables stable connectivity even in remote areas by integrating different types of networks (Wi-Fi, 4G, 5G, satellite). This enables the reliable and cost-effective collection and transmission of large amounts of data.
The multiple know-how of the partners of the consortium, brought together under the auspices of the PNRR RESTART program, coordinated by the Politecnico di Milano and composed of three other universities (University of Pisa, University of Catania, University of Milan Bicocca), three companies (Italtel, Nextworks, Sensor ID) and a research center (CNIT RaSS of Pisa), in collaboration with the Migliarino, San Rossore, Massaciuccoli Regional Park Authority of the Tuscany Region, were brought to bear on the experimentation.
In the coming months, the development of the service orchestration system is scheduled to be completed, which will enable distributed training functions of AI models (e.g., Federated Learning and Continual Learning) to be carried out to improve performance without transferring large amounts of images across the network. The final integration of the system will allow new experiments to be carried out in San Rossore Park. The ultimate goal of WatchEDGE will be to transform research into technological solutions that can also be applied in industrial settings.
“WatchEDGE was designed to target basic research to impactful solutions for a specific important economic sector,” says Guido Maier, coordinator and professor of Telecommunications at Politecnico di Milano. ”All eight partners shared this approach. The three industrial partners were able to identify opportunities for technology transfer to potential new products in the project. The academic partners, meanwhile, are studying advanced engineering solutions that can be integrated and tested in the proposed system. Politecnico di Milano, the project leader, is engaged in the development of AI for image processing and SD-WAN programmable network elements. The collaboration with the San Rossore Park is essential both for testing our solutions in the field and for the mutual exchange of ideas and experiences. The first experimental campaign will be followed by other in situ activities until the conclusion of the project and hopefully beyond.”
“The development of artificial intelligence applications for environmental monitoring cannot be separated from cooperation with the network,” explained Stefano Giordano, professor of Telecommunications at the University of Pisa. ”The network infrastructure, however, is composed of heterogeneous technologies that must be made increasingly capable of integrating and interacting with each other. As part of the WatchEDGE project, the University of Pisa has taken care of the interaction between the satellite network, 5G network, Edge Computing and low-power peripheral networks for camera communication in the field. In the future, our research is aimed at making these functions, experimented now in a static way, more and more dynamic, trying to achieve what we have called a fully liquid artificial intelligence.”
“We are a Park open to science and experiments that lead to greater environmental awareness, and to developing new techniques to improve the coexistence of human activities and nature,” says Claudia Principe, vice president of the Migliarino San Rossore Massaciuccoli Regional Park Authority. ”This cutting-edge activity joins other projects we are pursuing thanks to PNRR funds, and which lead us to design a better, eco-sustainable future.
“Per il programma RESTART la sperimentazione realizzata dal progetto WatchEDGE rappresenta un esempio significativo di quanto puntiamo a ottenere al termine dei nostri tre anni di attività – dichiara il professor Nicola Blefari Melazzi, presidente della Fondazione RESTART – Trasformare la ricerca in soluzioni tecnologiche concrete, con impatti reali per settori economici fondamentali come quello agricolo, è quello che RESTART vuole garantire mettendo la tecnologia al servizio di un futuro più sicuro e sostenibile.”
“For the RESTART program, the experimentation carried out by the WatchEDGE project is a significant example of what we aim to achieve at the end of our three years of activity,” says Professor Nicola Blefari Melazzi, president of the RESTART Foundation. ”Turning research into concrete technological solutions with real impacts for key economic sectors such as agriculture is what RESTART wants to ensure by putting technology at the service of a safer and more sustainable future.”