H2020 VineScout Project: Smart Decision-Making for Winemaking Robots
- Type Project
- Status Filled
- Execution 2016 -2020
- Assigned Budget 1.741.225,63 €
- Scope Europeo
- Main source of financing H2020
- Project website VineScout
- Optimization of the mechanical design and external appearance. A new external casing was designed for the VineScout prototype, resulting in the third and final version of the robot, the VS-3. The harsh field conditions and the importance of an attractive appearance for marketing purposes were taken into account. Regarding traction capacity and energy efficiency, the mechanical torque and batteries were strengthened.
- Industrialization of internal electronics: Safety and environmental resistance capabilities are achieved through the design of a set of manufactured and tested modular electronic blocks. This rational design facilitates the seamless integration of software and electromechanical devices.
- Validation of maps and detection capabilities: The maps generated by the robot must provide accurate data so they can be statistically compared with alternative measurements. Obtaining accurate data requires obtaining it with the appropriate sensors; therefore, the sensors were tested in the field, not only integrated into the robot but also independently, to verify the obtained values.
- Software refinement, optimization, and market readiness: Efforts were made to improve software performance in terms of execution speed and fail-safe response. As new sensors were incorporated, the programming had to be modified.
- Building three prototypes with increasing capabilities: An active iterative process was required to converge toward the optimal solution, which in agricultural settings requires extensive testing in real-world environments.
- Demonstration: The project's Management Weeks were held in Portugal, in the commercial fields where the VineScout robot was tested. During the Management Weeks' Agronomy Sessions, the Consortium invited outsiders to see, touch, and even operate the robot, and to ask questions about the robot or the project itself.
- Market introduction tactics, end-user acceptance, and dissemination: The most important activities for the project in terms of visibility take place during the Steering Weeks. On Agronomy Day, people from different backgrounds can give their opinions and share their suggestions with the Consortium. These suggestions are extremely valuable for the project's success, as they can share their experiences with other robots.
- Attendance at robotics and agricultural equipment trade shows has shown that interest in agricultural robotics is high and that competition will increase in the coming years. The market for service robots continues to grow, as does the market for agricultural robots.
Wine is a fundamental product in the European agricultural sector. To obtain good wines with high added value, harvesting high-quality grapes is essential. To achieve this, vines must be monitored to assess their optimal growth and ripeness for harvest. In the recent past, and even today on many farms, the available monitoring methods were visual observation or random sampling of individual grapes. These methods do not provide completely reliable information about the crop. Precise methods exist, such as the use of multispectral sensors mounted on drones or aircraft. However, the low resolution of the data obtained this way and the limited ability of users to decide when to acquire it when it is most needed limits their usefulness for winegrowers.
The Vinescout robot is the evolution of Vinerobot, created to address this problem. As the robot collects data in the field, it processes higher-resolution data taken at less than one meter, allowing for more accurate information. The robot explores the vineyard and collects data autonomously. It is equipped with crop sensors that measure canopy temperature, NDVI, and other environmental information about the vines. By calculating vegetative indices, maps of canopy temperature, vegetative growth, and plant water status are obtained.
This data is transferred to the winegrower, who can monitor the needs and condition of the vineyard and make decisions about the best time to irrigate, apply treatments, or select different areas for a more efficient harvest. Vinescout uses electricity from lithium batteries and solar panels. It uses algorithms based on local perception for autonomous guidance.
The wine industry is strategic for Europe, both economically and socially. Its competitive position in the global market depends on the long-term reputation of its wines, which requires many years of development and can be quickly lost with a low-quality wine. The risk of losing reputation is high when repeatability cannot be guaranteed, which is increasingly the case in vineyards where manual sampling is scarce due to unaffordable costs.
Therefore, our goal is to industrialize, demonstrate, and commercialize, as pioneers, an innovative expert field monitoring system (decision support system) integrated into a compact and cost-effective vineyard robot. This system will be a continuation of the successful EU-funded VineRobot project (TRL6/7). To ensure commercial success, we will optimize both the external design and internal electronics, and industrialize the navigation and mapping software to achieve maximum performance, protection, and ease of use.
To this end, we have an industry-driven consortium focused on one of Europe's largest agricultural sectors, with a solid business plan and the support of a large number of committed industry leaders and end-users, ensuring rapid market implementation. Market penetration will be driven by SMEs already active in the robotics and viticulture sectors, reinforced by strategic trade shows and international conferences.
As a result, we are targeting a cumulative turnover of €33 million over five years, generating €10.9 million in industrial profits, achieving 5% market adoption, and serving 54,540 ha of vineyards in the EU. Furthermore, VineScout technology will attract young farmers to rural areas, which is becoming crucial for the sector's sustainability as the current farming population approaches retirement age. The practical adoption of robotics in agriculture will create jobs, thanks in part to the emergence of new industries related to ICT, precision management, and data interpretation.
Potential direct competitors are GOFAR, the Global Organization for Agricultural Robotics (website: https://www.agricultural-robotics.com/ ). To name a few: Romovi (with a subjective assessment of its potential risk for the VineScout project: low, as it focuses solely on the specific environment of single-row terraces, and envisages a localization solution based on a fully customized wireless positioning system), Vinobot (with a low risk, as the objective of this project is plant phenotyping and they are not looking for a commercial solution), Vitibot (the latter with a medium risk).
It is autonomous, solar-powered, and electric, characteristics that compete with VineScout) and TED (with a medium risk, TED probably represents the most direct competitor. It is manufactured by the European company Naïo Technologies, which has already begun selling agricultural robots. This platform is robust and resistant to agricultural environments, and can operate at 4 km/h). The boom in the robotics market, along with the arrival of a multitude of crop sensors at a competitive cost, is increasing the interest of winegrowers and wineries that own vineyards in implementing digital technologies in their management strategies.
- Social impact. An important side effect of the successful introduction of robotics in European vineyards is the appeal of new technologies to young farmers. The average age of the agricultural population is currently close to retirement age, with very few producers under 35. The appeal of electronics and automation will likely help counteract the negative impact of an aging population on agriculture.
- Socioeconomic impact. Socioeconomic studies have conclusively demonstrated that automation creates more jobs for the economy as a whole than it eliminates. It reduces the number of low-skilled, repetitive tasks while creating a whole host of higher-skilled jobs in manufacturing, data support for decision-making, services, and financial industries, with entirely new industries that, in many cases, lead to greater economic prosperity.
- Environmental impact. The deployment of agricultural robots powered entirely by renewable energy—rechargeable batteries and solar panels—represents a paradigm shift in agricultural machinery, where agricultural vehicles have run exclusively on diesel for the past 100 years. The final prototype of the VineScout robot is designed to be built with recyclable materials for most of its components. Both approaches will make it one of the most environmentally friendly solutions for food production using self-propelled autonomous machines.
- Technological impact. A mapping agent for a decision-support tool that requires reliable and accurate positioning information offers an ideal environment for promoting the new GALILEO satellite positioning system. The financial efforts made by the EU to establish European GNSS will benefit end users, who will be able to make better management decisions and, consequently, obtain greater profits.
- UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE VALENCIA (UPV)
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