DIGICAT

Execution period

August 2017 March 2018

The project

The agri-food sector is characterized by being the largest consumer of the manufacturing industry, consuming between 8% and 15% of the water consumed by the whole of European industry. An Aragonese meat industry has been chosen as software development field. The meat industry is the main agribusiness subsector by sales volume.

Until now, industry has prioritized the optimization of other resources of higher cost than water by making technological investments in other areas, such as energy, transportation, production processes, etc. However, the management of the water cycle for industrial use in terms of quality control, regulatory compliance, the cost of water at the point of use and environmental responsibility is a matter of concern for industry.

DIGICAT aims to develop an artificial intelligence software appliedto the agri-food industry to improve the integrated management of the water cycle. Endowed with Artificial Intelligence (Big Data Analytics and Predictive Capability), DIGICAT will help companies in the agri-food sector to make decisions for the optimization of water flows in near-real time and predictive.

To this end, DIGICAT has the following partners:

• ZINNAE (Coordinator)
• COGNIT (Technical Coordinator)
• FRIBIN
• CONTAZARA
• ITAINNOVA

Innovative Business Clusters

This project has received a grant under the program to support Innovative Business Groups (AEIs). This program to support the strengthening of innovation clusters is inserted in the European strategy to improve competitiveness for the innovation.

The clusters that can benefit from the program’s grants are those entities whose innovative potential and critical mass have been recognized by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (MINECO) through their registration in the Register of Innovative Business Clusters.

ZINNAE has been part of the Registry of Innovative Business Groups since 2010.

Project objectives

This project is phase 1 for the development of an artificial intelligence software for the management of water (DIGICAT), in order to help the manufacturing industry agri-food to manage their water flows. The software will be able to establish patterns and therefore be able to predict behaviors according to the productions, being able to anticipate at all times to possible deviations of the requirements and thus keep the water consumptions optimized at all times.

Specific objectives for Phase 1 include the following:

1. Identify the needs of a replicable agri-food production process, Fribin meat industry.
2. Visualize the characterization of relevant water streams by applying Business Intelligence.
3. Data analysis for decision making in stream optimization with the objective of minimizing consumption and discharge
4. Establish patterns of water flow behavior and productivity.
5. Identify indicators for prediction and anticipation of needs.
6. Pre-development of software prediction algorithms
7. Perform the Value Added Analysis of the software
8. Conduct Market Proximity and Continuity Analysis of the project

Work Packages

The project is coordinated by ZINNAE with technical support from COGNIT. The project includes the following five work packages:

• PT1 Project coordination and dissemination of results
• PT2 Analysis of the Fribin water cycle
• PT3 Visualization and optimization of water flows
• PT4 Rapid prototyping of big data analytics solutions applied to streamflow optimization.
• PT5 Analysis of added value, market proximity and continuity

More information and contact

More information and collaboration opportunities at ZINNAE, through cpresa@zinnae.org.

And in COGNIT, through p.delchicca(@)cognit.es

And in ITAINNOVA, through csaviron(@)itainnova.es

And in CONTAZARA, through jsantacruz(@)contazara.es