Vineyards can require many external inputs to reduce biotic and abiotic stress factors and ensure grape production. The use of precision farming can reduce the environmental impact of this type of farming through better use of pesticides, fertilisers, water and fuel consumption, as well as reducing emissions of CO2, ammonia, PM and the risk of eutrophication.

The project, which started in September 2020, aims to introduce novel technologies for precision agriculture in vineyards and their validation in two pilots, one located in Italy (Familglia Cottarella) and the other in Spain (Bodega Conrad, Ronda).

The project includes several phases that include the installation of sensors that collect real-time data from the vineyards, the development of an IoT management platform that processes this data and finally the use of a Rover that, based on the data provided by the platform, moves along the vineyards to act depending on the circumstances.

Last Monday, October 31st, a new milestone in the implementation of the project was reached in the pilot that is being developed at Bodegas Conrad with the transfer of the Rover developed by the Italian company Setel, a partner in the project. In April of this year, four sets of sensors were installed, which have since provided data on various parameters relevant to the growth and proper development of the vineyards. These data are captured by an IoT platform, developed by Wellness TechGroup, which will be responsible for indicating, based on the analysis of this information, the response that the Rover will have to give according to the state of the vineyard.

Together with the reception of the Rover, a working day was held with the participation of members of Setel and Wellness TechGroup in which the work plan and the tests to be carried out in the following months were established, where technical details were also discussed regarding the communications architecture that will allow the integration of the data in real time.