Agricultural Sampling Grids for Pathogen Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current systems face challenges in providing timely and efficient traceability of lab testing results for pathogenic microorganisms in agriculture, particularly as operations scale, leading to difficulties in optimizing population sampling and maintaining compliance with food safety protocols.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that integrates mobile devices and computing platforms to generate optimized sampling plans and collect test samples, utilizing geolocation and food safety audit information to ensure accurate traceability and compliance, including the use of sampling grids and stratified random sampling methods.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the number of samples obtained per lot increases, then the likelihood of detecting a present pathogen in a population improves, but the cost becomes prohibitive
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by collecting and analyzing food safety audit information before the sampling decision is made. This advance preparation allows the system to identify high-risk areas and adjust the sampling plan accordingly, reducing the number of samples needed while maintaining detection probability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes parameters by dynamically adjusting the sampling plan based on food safety audit information. When audit information indicates higher risk, the system increases sampling intensity in those specific areas; when risk is lower, it reduces sampling. This parameter adjustment resolves the contradiction by optimizing sample quantity based on actual risk levels rather than using a fixed high sample count.
2Productivity
If operations grow larger, then productivity increases, but the ability to provide traceability of test results to particular samples becomes increasingly difficult and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies universality by using a single mobile device to perform multiple functions: collecting food safety audit information, generating sampling plans, guiding sample collection with GPS navigation, and tracking sample locations. This multi-functional approach maintains traceability capabilities even as operations scale, without requiring separate specialized systems for each function.
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces manual mechanical traceability methods with automated electronic tracking. GPS coordinates automatically record sample locations, and the system electronically links samples to test results, eliminating the need for manual tracking processes that become cumbersome as operations grow larger.
3Ease of manufacture
If traditional sampling methods are used, then sampling can be performed without additional information, but the optimization of population sampling is limited and more samples are required
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces food safety audit information as an intermediary element between the sampling decision and the actual sampling process. This intermediary provides valuable context about field conditions, historical data, and risk factors that helps optimize the sampling plan, improving population information quality without significantly complicating the sampling process.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein are embodiments of a system, method, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for generating sampling plans for a selected agriculture area and providing a user interface configured to display sampling plan information to a user to allow for validation and traceability of sample collection in the agriculture area. One or more embodiments allow for sample plan information to be based in part on food safety audit information, some or all of which may have been collected using the system.