Trimble eCognition

Develop an eCognition-powered block for the UP42 marketplace.


Analytics platform discontinued after January 31, 2024

The current analytics platform will be discontinued after January 31, 2024, and will be replaced by new advanced processing functionalities. This change will affect projects, workflows, jobs, data blocks, processing blocks, and custom blocks. For more information, see the blog post.

Overview

Trimble eCognition software enables users to create custom applications that apply machine learning algorithms on raster data to perform automated feature extraction, interpretation, and analysis.

If you are already developing customized applications with eCognition, you can publish your application as a block on the UP42 marketplace and generate revenue from the usage of your application by other users.

Step 1. Partner with UP42

Step 2. Build your eCognition-powered block

Step 3. Test your block

Step 4. Complete quality assessment

Step 5. Publish your block

Step 1. Partner with UP42

If you have expertise in Trimble eCognition and want to bring your application into the UP42 marketplace, contact us to sign a partnership agreement. We will help you navigate through the block development, testing, quality assessment, and publication.

Step 2. Build your eCognition-powered block

If you develop in Python, you can use the eCognition block template and adjust it to your algorithm by following the steps below. Otherwise, follow the steps of custom block development.

See the directory structure of the template
.
├── Dockerfile            # Recipe for building docker image
├── LICENSE
├── Makefile              # Makefile to help you with general commands
├── README.md
├── UP42Manifest.json     # Block configuration defining name, input and output capabilities of block etc.
├── coverage.svg
├── marketplace.json      # Marketplace information controls the version of block
├── pylintrc
├── requirements-dev.txt
├── requirements.txt
├── ruleset               # Directory holding the eCognition rulesets
│   └── ruleset.dcp
├── src                   # Directory holding the block codes
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── __main__.py       # Main application entrypoint. Defines the logical flow of program
│   ├── config.py         # Configuration file defining the global variables and constants
│   └── ecognition.py     # Defines variety of functions
└── tests
    ├── conftest.py
    ├── mock_data
    │   ├── data.json
    │   └── ruleset.dcp
    └── test_ecognition.py

  1. Clone the repository with the eCognition block template.

    $ git clone https://github.com/up42/ecognition-powered-block-template.git
    
  2. Replace the ruleset.

    In eCognition, a ruleset is a combination of processes defined by the user to perform analysis tasks. You must use your own eCognition application and license to develop the ruleset for your eCognition-powered block. For more information about developing a ruleset, see eCognition's documentation and examples.

    Place your eCognition ruleset in the /ruleset folder. If your ruleset filename is not ruleset.dcp, adjust the RULESET_PATH.

  3. Configure UP42Manifest.json according to instructions on the block manifest and marketplace.json according to your version parameters.

    An example of a configured marketplace.json
    {
    "publicVersion": "0.0.2"
    }
    

Step 3. Test your block

Test the eCognition block on UP42 as a custom block in your UP42 account. If you don't have an account yet, create one.

  1. Publish your algorithm as a custom block.
  2. Contact support to access the eCognition license server.
  3. Create a workflow and test it in a job.

Step 4. Complete quality assessment

To complete quality assessment, contact your UP42 partner with the following details:

  • Recommended workflows with sample parameters
  • The registry URL of the custom block
  • Sample job results

We will test the block with your recommended workflows and sample parameters, in different scenarios to identify abnormal behavior, and under operational tests.

You will receive performance feedback, and if necessary, recommendations for optimization.

Step 5. Publish your block

To publish your block on the UP42 marketplace, you need to prepare and send the following marketplace information about your block to your UP42 partner:

  • Pricing strategy
  • Thumbnails
  • Block description
  • End-user license agreement (EULA)

After all criteria are met, your block will be published on the marketplace, and you will receive a custom dashboard to track your block's usage by UP42 users. You will receive monthly payments based on the usage of your block by UP42 users.