Battelle – Agribusienss & Digital AgricultureDr. Joshua Arnold, PhD

Director, Business Development

Business Sensitive1

Contract Research

CBRNE

DEFENSE

MISSION AND

DEFENSE

SYSTEMS

INFRASTRUCTURE

AND

ENVIRONMENT

HEALTH

Battelle’s contract research organization provides

excellence across broad technical areas.

Battelle AgribusinessMultinational footprint addressing the global needs of

our clients

Norwell, MA

Toxicology

Formulation Development and Analysis

E-Fate & Plant

MetabolismResidue

Risk Assessment

Regulatory Affairs & Program

Management

Agbiotech Support

….and more

Agribusiness Range of Services Every phase of agricultural research & product development

Biological

Formulations

Precision

Ag.

Spray

Applications

Precision or “Digital” Ag.

• 34% increase in world’s population by 2050 (~9.1B)

• Urbanization is rapid and will continue to be accelerated

• Improvement in crop yields are essential

• How?

▪ Research focus on chemistries, traits, farming practices and

precision/digital Ag.

▪ Satellite farming/Site specific crop management (SSCM)

▪ Water quality, automated farm equipment, remote sensors to monitor

crop health, UAVs…

Demand for Smarter Technologies

• Could Based-Services – GPS

• Automated farming – Equipment & UAVs

• Data collection – Sensors

• Etc…

“The global smart agriculture market is projected to

report a CAGR of 13.5% between 2017 and 2025. At

this pace, the market’s valuation will rise from US$6.55

bn in 2015 to US$23.44 bn by the end of 2025” –

Sources TMR Analysis

What is Precision or Digital Ag.?• Smart Ag…

• Sensors…

• UAVs

• Chemistry…

• Platforms…

• Spray nozzles…

• Equipment…

• Data Analytics – Big Data…

Weather &

Soil

Equipment Field

Testing

Seed,

Fertility, &

Crop

Protection

Grower

Data

Data

Acce

ss

Formulation Challenges: Synthetic Chemistries and Microbial (Biologics)Conquered in top facilities by an experienced team in a collaborativemanner

BoothBench Formulation Development GLP Storage StabilityAnalytical Lab

Senior staff each have 25–35 years of Formulations R&D experience,

Working with and for multinational commercial organizations

Experience across formulation types, with no supplier bias!

Biologics Encapsulation of Active Seed DressingSub Micron SC

✓ Fee-for-service

✓ Investigate problems

✓ Totally new development

✓ Complement in-house formulation

WG

SC

SE

OD

DC

EW

ME

CS

FSEC

SL

Spray Testing/Droplet Size Distribution

Utilizing Battelle’s diversity to enhance Agricultural

technology advancement

Ambient Breeze Tunnel (ABT) and Indoor Wind Tunnel

– Full-scale, weather-independent testing facility

– Suitable for conducting agricultural spray drift studies under GLP compliance

What is NEON?

• National Ecological Observatory Network

• A large science facility funded by the

• U.S. National Science Foundation

• A continental-scale ecological observatory that:

• Collects and provides free and open data on the drivers of and responses to ecological change

• Can be used as a standardized and reliable framework for additional research and experiments

• Focuses on data interoperability for integration with other national and international network science projects

Business Sensitive

Why is NEON important?

NEON provides a highly coordinated national system for

monitoring a number of critical ecological and

environmental properties at multiple spatial and temporal

scales.

NEON can be used to:

Integrate ecological

observations across

multiple scales

12 Business Sensitive

Enable

environmental

forecasting

NEON’s data collection methods

13

Automated

instruments

Observational

sampling

Airborne remote

sensing

• These three systems

collect data within close

proximity of each other at

each site

• Standardized methods

are used across all sites

Business Sensitive

Business Sensitive

Business Sensitive

Airborne Remote SensingThe Airborne Observation Platform (AOP)

Annual surveys are conducted at peak greenness over the

watershed of each site

“Big Data”

Big data technologies: a new generation of

technologies and architectures, designed

to

economically extract value from very large

volumes of a wide variety of data, by

enabling high-velocity capture, discovery,

and/or analysis.

Source: http://www.emc.com/collateral/analyst-reports/idc-extracting-value-from-chaos-ar.pdf

Volume

3 V’s

VarietyVelocity

Data Acquisition Data Management

Analysis (Biostatistics,

Statistics, Physics)

Implementation (Computer

theory, Software programming)

Delivery (Web, Application, Models, etc.)

Data to Decision Solutions

Develop experimental study design and statistical methodology

▪ Team of Ph.D. statisticians, physicists, and mathematicians

supported by data managers and software developers

▪ Image Analysis

− Registration, Segmentation, Feature Extraction, Classification

▪ X-ray CT and DR imagery

− Explosive Detection Systems (EDS)

▪ Coding algorithms for end-use applications and embedded devices

▪ UAV and Kinect Video Analysis

▪ Analysis of visual images for forensic analysis

▪ CCD Array Data

− Raman Spectroscopy (Near IR)

− Gas Chromatography (GCxGC TOF MS)

▪ Statistical Modeling

▪ Software:

− Matlab, OpenCV, R, VolView, ITK/VTK, SAS

− C++, C#, Java, Python

Battelle’s Imaging Capabilities

Business Sensitive17

Aerial Video Analytics

Automated counting and tracking of objects

2D Gas Chromatography

Analyze secondary peaks to identify

source of manufacturer of chemicals,

pesticides, and smoke.

Sensor Processing

• Processing large volumes of data in real-time for operator

feedback or a UAV

• Open integration of the software

• Simulation – sensors, environments

▪ Simulation framework that allows 3rd party integration

• My vision is that they could bring the sensor, perception,

and autonomy function (software) and Battelle could

provide the integration and engineering.