As part of the “Taranto Global Innovation Accelerator” call, at the headquarters of Confesercenti Taranto Casaimpresa was presented on PAOH project (which stands for Precision TOquaculture for ORneither Health), an absolutely innovative project to support mussel farming in Mar Piccolo, which makes use of IOT (Internet of Things) and Artificial Intelligence.
Testimonials of the meeting were the project manager of the PAOH project, Aldo Manzulli, the Councilor for Urban Planning, Mobility and Innovation of the Municipality of Taranto, Edmondo Ruggiero, the manager of the Taranto office ofIRSA CNR, Magda Di Leo, the Sole Director of Xensorama srl, Cosimo Pignatelli, the provincial President of AGCI Agrital Fishing Sector, Emilio Palumbo, the President of the Stella Maris Fisheries Producers Organization, Cosimo Bisignano. For UILA Pesca, he intervened Roberto Basile.
But let’s see the history of this project: The Municipality of Taranto, with the Notice “TARANTO GLOBAL INNOVATION ACCELERATOR ” aimed at the development of new innovative businesses (and based on the financial resources of the “Social regeneration plan for the crisis area of Taranto” approved by the Ministry of Economic Development, admitted for financing, out of a total of 32 proposals received, 7 projects presented by as many Start-Ups and Innovative Companies, all oriented towards the theme of “ONE HEALTH”. CALLIOPE.
Among the seven selected there is also the PAOH project (acronym for Precision Aquaculture for One Health), created by the Taranto company XENSORAMA Srl, a Start-Up particularly active in the sector of Virtual and Augmented Reality and Innovative Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and IOT (Internet Of Things), which are the basis of this innovative project which has as its main objective the creation of a useful and usable service through a technological platform designed for this purpose, based on the integrated combination of these technologies and aimed at the analysis and environmental monitoring in the field (chemical-physical and biological parameters) of ecosystems and stable habitats in the aquaculture sector, with particular reference to shellfish farming (mussel farming).
The project was born from the observation that aquaculture, which consists in the cultivation of aquatic organisms in controlled environments, is also embarking, like other sectors of the agri-food industry, on a profound transformation thanks to the application of IoT technology and of artificial intelligence AI (as has been happening for some years in the sector of so-called precision agriculture or 4.0), which are opening up new opportunities for a more sustainable, efficient and eco-friendly industry, addressing challenges such as environmental sustainability, the health of the products raised and that of their consumers, as well as the operational efficiency of production plants.
In this reference scenario, XENSORAMA Srl has decided to engage in the study and experimentation aimed at developing supporting products/services for the aquaculture sector, starting from an analysis of the needs of local producers in the field of mussel farming who would benefit benefits of various kinds from the use of emerging technologies such as IOT and Artificial Intelligence.
In this sense, it has formalized a partnership agreement aimed at sharing and collaborating to achieve the objectives of the PAOH project with the territorial branches of the main National Trade Associations of Producers ( Lega Coop, AGCI Pesca ), as well as with the only Taranto Producers Organization (OP) existing in the mussel farming sector ( Mytilus Tarenti Consortium ), with the sector union UILA Fishing.
Furthermore, it has started a process of scientific collaboration with the CNR-IRSA through the Manager of the Taranto branch, Dr Magda Di Leo, aimed at directing mutual skills in the creation of Artificial Intelligence applications aimed at some main objectives in the field of Mussel Farming, such as preventing product death (both adult product and seed) caused for example by high temperatures, using data monitoring with predictive techniques and models.
This, in order to direct the experimentation towards the issues of greatest relevance and/or interest for operators who need technological solutions that help them in their daily activity, as well as for the protection of the cultivated products and their quality, acquiring and processing data in real time with the use of AI algorithms, rendering a service useful to the user as well CNR-IRSA who will thus have further information in the context of the various research activities carried out by the Institution which will validate, from a scientific point of view, the procedures and methodologies used in the PAOH project for the collection of reliable data and for their processing aimed at obtaining reliable results.
The PAOH Project has a timetable of planned activities which expires on 31 October 2024, but it is the intention of all the Project Partners to continue working even after the scheduled technical deadline, in order to be able to achieve, even subsequently, increasingly better results, refining the designed Artificial Intelligence algorithms.
To this end, XENSORAMA Srl has recently expressed a formal request to the ASL of Taranto to interface with the Hygiene and Public Health Service (SISP) directed by Dr. Michele Conversano, with the aim of verifying the possibility of optimizing the cross-processing of qualitative information and public data measured and sampled by the ASL on products raised in Mar Piccolo (first and second breast) with the corresponding ones of environmental nature which are detected promptly and continuously with very high precision sensors and multiparametric probes active in the mirrors used for the experimentation.
