Computer integrated agriculture: an essential element in agricultural chains.
D. Goense · Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling · 1994
Consumers attach great importance to safe and clean products.This requires market oriented production in which quality, environment and animal welfare are considered.New integrated tools in management to fulfil these requirements require more information and a better information flow between different production phases.The objective is to develop a competitive modular and open IT system for the new generation of management tools in agriculture.This will be achieved by adapting knowledge, concepts and solutions from Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) technology.To realise such a system the CIA project is carried out in which the main business processes in agriculture are defined, an architecture is designed and information is described in a detailed information model.An inventory is made of communication technologies, and a selection will be made for the different levels of communication in the agricultural production system.The developed models, definitions and protocols are submitted to international standardisation bodies.This paper describes an architecture for the agricultural production control in the primary sector.The architecture is based on different levels of architectural generalization as described in the CIM-OSA concept.As such the generic parts are applicable in all branches of agriculture.In this paper especially the control of production processes will be highlighted.The most important objects associated with production control that are relevant for data exchange between the different production levels and production organisations will be discussed.An important aspect of the integrating infrastructure is the communication technology.The possibilities for application of the Manufacturing Message Specification (MMS), the application layer used in the MAP standard, on the process control level in agriculture is investigated.