SATIKAS - Detecting the agricultural grasslands changes

In the Estonian Agricultural Registers and Information Board (ARIB), AI is used in order to detect whether the agricultural grasslands have been mowed or not using image recognition. This system, called SATIKAS , uses deep learning methods and convolutional neural network approaches to analyse the satellite data coming from the European COPERNICUS programme to automatically detect whether mowing has taken place on the Estonian grasslands. The optical satellite images from Sentinel 1 and 2 are analysed together with reference data of farmer fields, historical inspection logs and meteorological data from the Estonian Weather Service. This AI system is now regarded as one of the first AI applications used by the government in Estonia. The SATIKAS system is still under development and will expand its features and capabilities in the near future. While at the moment the system is able to detect mowing of grass, in the future it will be used for identifying different types of crops and trees as well.