Project
LWV22018 smart (straw)berry chain
Every year, retailers transport thousands of tons of strawberries and other berries from southern Europe in refrigerated trucks to the northern part of Europe. Up to 10% of these berries are lost between cultivation and the retailer due to a suboptimal cold chain (FAO 2022). After that, up to 20% can be lost between the retailer and the consumer (FAO 2022).
We propose to implement a digital twin of the European (straw)berry chain. To this end, we will use sensors to monitor temperature and air humidity in the full chain from harvest to retail. We will use the sensor data to fuel the relevant physiological models of the (straw)berries, covering senescence, dehydration, and susceptibility to microbiological diseases. Moreover, the energy consumption models of the cold chain will be made explicit and will be optimised. The digital twin system will consist of:
- A physical twin module: the actual supply chain of the (straw)berries
- A digital twin module: the data and physics-based simulation models that represent the physical twin module completed with an easy-to-use digital dashboard for suggestions on how to improve the actual supply chain
- An emulated twin module: a physical system in which recommendations from the digital twin module can be tested in real-life-like situations, before being moved to the actual full-scale supply chain, i.e. the physical module
The technical end-result of this project will be (i) a digital twin system that is in place in commercial supply chains and (ii) a quantification of how well this digital twin contributes to the goals of this project. The resulting impacts of this project are (i) significantly reduced (straw)berry losses in the supply chain, (ii) increased sustainability of the chain due to lower energy use and lower greenhouse gas emissions, and (iii) maximised product quality for the consumers.