AquiAID

Artificial Intelligence Decisions in Aquaculture

AquiAID is a web-based decision support tool developed in the context of the MedAID project as part of the Work Packed 6, coordinated by the research group in Economic management for the primary sector sustainability (Ides) from the University of Cantabria (UC).

MedAID (Mediterranean Aquaculture Integrated Development) is a Horizon 2020 four-year project that aims to increase the overall competitiveness and sustainability of the Mediterranean marine fish-farming sector, throughout the whole value chain. Within MedAID, Work-package 6 addresses aspects of production economics and markets, including the assessment of the economic efficiency and economic optimization of Mediterranean aquaculture production.

Over time, the competitiveness in aquaculture markets is increasing. On parallel, there is an increase on the size of companies, producing fish in more and bigger farms. To better manage those farms and companies, bigger amount of data of zootechnic and economic nature is collected. However, the advancement of data collection technologies mean that managers have difficulties to process the information available in an efficient way. In order to increase production efficiency, it is necessary to facilitate the work of these managers through the development of more powerful methodologies to support decision-making.

In WP6 the decision making process in seabream and seabass production is improved through the application of innovative artificial intelligence simulation and optimization techniques. These new combination of models allows the optimization of operational strategies in seabream and seabass production at sea cages with multiple batches according to multiple objectives (economic, environmental and quality factors) and multiple decisions, such as the seeding and harvesting dates or the feed selection.

The research also addresses one of the critical points in the generation of knowledge, the transfer and exploitation of results. The work has provided a tool, AquiAID (Artificial Intelligence Decisions in Aquaculture), available online in which the stakeholders of the sector can take advantage of these innovations through a simple interface.

MedAID project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 727315.