Iowa State scientists usher in cyber-agricultural future

AMES — Drones flying over fields to assess crop status. Tractors steering autonomously, guided by soil maps to deliver tailored doses of fertilizer. Robots in the rows harvesting high-value fruits.

What was recently science fiction may already be available from an ag retailer near you.

The farm of the future is arriving, thanks in large part to Iowa State University researchers Soumik Sarkar and Asheesh “Danny” Singh.

“Iowa State has been at the forefront of creating a new discipline, cyber-agricultural systems, which brings together many areas of expertise to address big agricultural problems and create opportunities for smart, connected and response- agile farms, which could hardly have been imagined a few years ago,” said Singh, G.F. Sprague chair in agronomy.

Cyber-agricultural systems draw from mathematics, engineering and computer science, building on cyber-physical systems that have revolutionized industries like manufacturing, aerospace engineering and transportation.

Sarkar, a professor of mechanical engineering, worked on cyber-physical systems in industry before coming to Iowa State in 2014. He soon met Singh, who was experimenting with using machine learning and artificial intelligence to improve variety development for crop production. The two quickly realized the potential of adapting cyber-physical approaches for agriculture.

Recently, they reviewed the new field they helped launch for the journal Trends in Plant Sciences. With co-authors from around campus and the country, they describe how CAS is complementary yet distinct from precision and smart ag and outline three main components defining the CAS framework:

• Data absorption from sensors and cameras of many kinds affixed to satellites, drones and robots that collect a multitude of data on plants, weeds, insects, diseases or animal behavior, along with information on landscape position, weather and environmental conditions.

• Modeling using the data to answer questions and make predictions.

• Decision-support applications based on the modeling results informing digitally based tools designed to answer specific questions, such as ‘What is this disease?’ and “What are recommendations for its management?’

Along with revolutionizing the practice of agriculture, CAS ushers in new tools and a new suite of acronyms, from smart connected farms to digital twins, for computer fieldscapes that reflect real farms, and the Internet of Things.

Building an international community invested in the new discipline’s potential to meet the grand challenges of agriculture has been a driving force in developing CAS, according to Sarkar and Singh.

Farmers and farm organizations have been engaged from the beginning, especially representatives of the Iowa Soybean Association, a group Singh has worked with closely.

Topics bringing the farmers and scientists together have included preparing for adverse weather, addressing agriculture’s labor shortages and more effectively utilizing costly inputs based on field and weather conditions.

So far, Iowa State has helped organize six Machine Learning for Cyber-Agricultural Systems conferences. Locations have included Lincoln, Nebraska, India and Japan.

ISA leader Jeff Frank, who farms with his wife Ellen and son Mitch near Auburn, spoke at the second MLCAS meeting in Ames in 2019. He attended the conference in Japan in 2023.

“At the meetings, I have been impressed by the researchers’ and students’ passion for solving problems,” Frank said in a recent interview.

The Franks have been early adopters of CAS-type equipment and technologies, including using grid sampling and soil mapping to guide variable rate planting and fine-tune fertilizer applications.

Son Dan, a computer engineer, helps explore ways that digital technologies can improve management of their century farm and rental land.

“These approaches are helping me achieve higher yields with lower inputs,” Jeff Frank said. “Farmers have to become more efficient to survive. These systems keep getting better, and they have a lot of potential to help our ROI.”

The field of CAS still is young. Areas being addressed in the next phases of CAS development include considerations around analyzing and storing vast amounts of data, rural connectivity, improving digital security and controlling and sharing farm-level data that has long been treated as confidential.

Iowa State faculty and students will continue to be at the leading edge of exploring these questions through research and through courses in precision ag, robotics and machine learning, Singh said.

New curricula are being launched in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences centered around CAS, including new courses on artificial intelligence for undergraduate and graduate majors, and micro-credentials as part of a new CALS Pathways to Innovation and Leadership program. Extension programs are also expanding related training programs for workforce development, and youth and adult learning.

“CAS approaches and skills are gaining importance in a wide variety of fields,” Singh said. “These areas represent new types of jobs and careers. Our students need to graduate with at least a basic understanding of these systems to prepare for future opportunities in industry, in farm retail environments and on farms.”