Takeaways from AEF Tech Week in Munich

Trip Report

The Take-Home from AEF Tech Week

By Ben Craker, Portfolio Manager

The week of 20 January I attended the second AEF Tech Week session at Panasonic’s facility in the southern part of Munich, Germany. The meetings focused of four primary teams in AEF: WIC (Wireless Infield Communication); HSI (High Speed ISOBUS); AgIN (Agricultural Interoperability Network); and DCS (Digital Camera Systems). While some of these projects only have a tangential impact on AgGateway work, AgIN is right in our wheelhouse and an area where AEF and AgGateway have been working to collaborate.

AgIN is an entire framework for sharing agricultural data, and in Europe it is one of several identified “Data Spaces.” There are several aspects to the project that will be of real value to companies sharing farmer data.

One of the biggest benefits that I believe is overlooked is that there is one legal agreement. All participants in the network sign the same data sharing agreement with AEF. This eliminates the need for companies that want to make a connection from having to do all the back and forth of one-off legal agreements. And being EU based means it meets the stringent GDPR requirements that provide a high standard for data privacy and security for end users. There is a legal subgroup within the AEF AgIN team that is wrapping up a final review of the agreement that has been reviewed by the legal departments of multiple organizations.

Contrary to previous projects aimed at sharing data, AgIN is not a centralized data transfer system. AgIN participants will still make 1:1 connections through standardized APIs, though AEF will provide some of the core trust mechanisms between platforms. They will essentially be hosting and managing the list of what platforms are approved to be connected to the network, and the capabilities of each platform.

The plan is to also have some conformance tests to ensure all the different participants have implemented the APIs properly. This is a similar concept to several popular platforms in the market today which require a new connection to prove it can properly exchange test data before being approved to exchange data in the production environment.

The system capabilities and conformance tests are all based on use cases, and if you are familiar with AEF ISOBUS functionalities like TC-BAS (Task Controller Basic) or UT (Universal Terminal) the concept is very similar. It is a group of several lower-level technical capabilities of a system that can be bundled together as a product and sold to an end customer.

For example, the first use case being implemented is machine tracking. This is the ability to see the position or – depending on machine configuration – the status or other information from multiple brands of equipment in a single platform. Another use case on the to-do list is transferring a work order (prescription map) to a machine. To help speed up implementation and ensure compatibility, AEF is developing a common connector. This is a software component that will manage all the trust and data transfer for systems connected to the network. The idea is that if all platforms can integrate a common software connector, it will be much quicker and easier to get the initial platforms onboarded. During the tech week sessions, the common connector was demonstrated, and while it is not 100% complete it is ready for companies to begin implementing. This was a big milestone for the project – they are not just talking about doing things, there is developed software that is ready to be used.

This is where AgGateway comes in. We are working to align some of the technical aspects of sharing this data by leveraging the new ADAPT Standard. Several of the use cases could utilize portions of the ADAPT Standard as the technical specification for sharing relevant data between platforms. During the tech week session, I presented on how ISOBUS DDI’s map through to ADAPT Standard data type definitions. I also covered some of the capabilities of the tool we use to manage the ADAPT Standard, demonstrating how it could speed up the development of schemas and API specifications for each AgIN use case based on the ADAPT Standard data model.

There was great participation and a lot of interest in AgIN. Several companies have already signed up for the common connector and the team is making good progress, with a goal of having something to show later this year. If you have not been involved in the project you can contact the AEF office here (office@aef-online.org), or drop me a note at ben.craker@aggateway.org. I am glad to discuss what I know if you have questions as well.