Smart spraying of plant health products for vineyards and olivetrees
January 7, 2022
ARIADNA draws to a close: a European project to promote the use of GALILEO satellite technology applied to urban mobility
January 17, 2022The Agricultural Machinery Unity (UMA) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC) has participated in the GOPHYTOVID project to develop an automatic, universal device for the variable application of plant health products, based on plant vigour maps.
The aim of the project was to minimise the use of chemical-based plant health products in viticulture and assess the practical application of alternative bioprotectors in vineyards. In this way, the project contributes to improving the management of diseases and pests and thus reduces the costs of treatment due to the use of plant health products. When only the strictly necessary dose is applied at the right time, the food safety of the final product increases, with the resulting economic and environmental benefit.
As part of the project, a tool has been developed and applied that is efficient, easy to use and simple to treat fungal diseases and pests in the vineyard. The tool supports winegrowers in decision-making according to their production strategy. The system is based on plant vigour maps (maps that assess the development of the crop) and the use of Dosaviña (a mobile application for winegrowers that calculates the optimum amount of the plant health product and the right volume to distribute).
The results obtained have achieved a 40% reduction in the use of plant health products in conventional and organic crops. In addition, successful application of viticulture precision techniques has been achieved, and the use of highly efficient treatment equipment. Furthermore, the cost and operating time for this activity have been cut.
The consortium, led by Miguel Torres S.A., has the participation of 16 partners, including universities and wineries in Catalonia and in the rest of Spain. Gophytovid took two years (August 2018 – June 2020), and had a budget of €616,806, through the grant programme for the execution of innovation projects by Operational Groups, co-funded by the European Union and the Spanish National Rural Development Programme (PNDR).
Related Projects
- The Visualisation, Virtual Reality and Graphic Interaction Research Group (ViRVIG) at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC) has participated in the XR4ED project, an initiative that connects the educational technology (EdTech) and Extended Reality (XR) sectors, with the aim of transforming learning and training across Europe.
- The inLab FIB at the UPC has collaborated with Lizcore® for the development of a proof of concept based on artificial intelligence to improve safety in climbing with autobelay devices. The system allows the automatic and accurate detection of risk situations before starting a route.
- Researchers from the Centre for Image and Multimedia Technology of the UPC (CITM) and from the DiCode research group (Digital Culture and Creative Technologies Research Group) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – BarcelonaTech (UPC) have worked on the project The Eyes of History, an initiative of the Catalan Agency for Cultural Heritage that offers an immersive view of Catalan cultural heritage. It is especially aimed at the first and second cycles of secondary education and was created to bring heritage into the classroom. Its goal is to bring the history and monuments of Catalonia closer in a vivid and innovative way, using tools such as virtual reality and new museographic narratives.
- City and Play is a social action project coordinated by researchers from the Centre for Image and Multimedia Technology (CITM) and the DiCode research group (Digital Culture and Creative Technologies Research Group) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – BarcelonaTech (UPC), the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and the University of Barcelona (UB), and funded by Barcelona City Council. The aim of the project is to promote civic competences and reflection on the urban environment among adolescents through the creation of an open framework that uses methodologies based on play, co-creation and storytelling.
