VISION & OBJECTIVES

FEROX aims to support workers with collecting wild berries and mushrooms in wild and remote areas of Nordic countries. The project solution will utilize the latest advances in artificial intelligence (AI), data and robotics technologies. The need for a solution that improves the human experience is substantial. As wild berries and mushrooms grow in forests, the access to these products is very challenging. The picking work is generally conducted by foreign workers and hobbyists and performed manually. It requires physical capabilities and patience in varying weather conditions during the summer season. In addition, as the workers are from foreign countries with very little knowledge of the work locations and the native language, some of them may suffer from anxieties of being injured or lost in the forests. Moreover, the optimum locations for the workers to pick the products are uncertain, which exerts added pressure on the workers to locate themselves optimally as their pay relies entirely on the amount of berries and mushrooms they collect daily.

These and many other reasons have motivated the consortium to introduce the FEROX project.

OBJECTIVES

Ob1. Development of an innovative solution based on the integration of AI, computer vision and drones to monitor harvesting activities while incorporating improvements in the working conditions of berry pickers and mitigating the risk factors and threats to their safety during berry picking activities.
Ob2. Identification of needs, hazards and challenges that workers face on a daily basis in terms of occupational safety, with the aim to reduce the severity of problems and injuries by trying to provide workers with faster and more efficient first aid.
Ob3. Definition of the baseline technical and functional requirements and identification of all components to be integrated into FEROX, enabling the design of the architecture and interface of the final solution.
Ob4. Development of the necessary technical services for the solution of problems as well as for the improvement of the working conditions of the workers, bearing in mind the idea of assisting in their daily tasks.
Ob5. Validate the design and engineering approaches in two phases, focused on (i) monitoring, navigation and locating; (ii) logistics optimization and physical assistance.
Ob6. Evaluate the impact of the FEROX use cases on workers, measuring improvements in workers' health, considering first aid and anomaly detection times.
Ob7. Dissemination and communication of project updates and results and establishing connections and interactions with DIH networks and Made in Europe Partnership, achieving a wide impact of the communication, dissemination and exploitation activities.
Ob8. Development of a thorough exploitation plan for the full-scale deployment of the project results, overcoming any possible barriers regarding the future acceptance of our new technology in Europe.

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