TECHNOLOGICAL CAPABILITIES
PLANT PRODUCTION
Horticulture: Technification and improvement in efficiency of horticultural crops
Crop protection:
- Improvement in prediction systems (production control)
- Pest and disease management
- New alternatives to chemical control
New post-harvest treatments: development of protocols that enable a product’s useful life to be extended while maintaining properties and quality
Greenhouses and vertical crops: improvement in the efficiency of production infrastructure based on technification and sustainability.
PRECISION AGRICULTURE (SMART FARMING)
Application of new information and communication technologies (ICT), sensorics, robotics and AI to agricultural tasks, to improve efficiency and reduce inputs:
- Automation of processes and mechanisation of production processes
- Development of measurement systems in agriculture and communication of data with less energy consumption
- Remote sensing for open-air crops using drones and satellites
- Improvement of productivity with mobile robots
- Design of machinery and equipment
DIGITALISATION
Development of data processing systems based on artificial intelligence and deep learning to generate high value-added information for decision making and automation of processes.
- Agriculture 4.0: systems for capturing and processing images and telecommunication systems based on data science
VALUATION
- Design of circular sustainable production processes
- Development of biomaterials based on renewable sources or the transformation of by-products into raw materials
- Reduction of losses in the field
- Development of technology to use plant fibres (hemp, maize, etc.) for textile production, construction and other industries
SUSTAINABILITY
Design of sustainable production processes under the paradigm of circularity within farming and throughout the food chain.
- Management of wastewater to reduce contamination and be able to reuse it
- Design of processes without CO2 emissions to contribute to decarbonisation
- Sources of renewable energy to generate bioenergy
- Preservation of biodiversity of cultivated plants
APPLICATION SECTORS
FOOD
AGRICULTURE AND MARINE ENVIRONMENT
DISTRIBUTION AND MASS CONSUMPTION
HEALTH
CIRCULAR ECONOMY
ENERGY
RELATED PROJECTS
- A team of researchers from the Department of Agri-Food Engineering and Biotechnology of the Barcelona School of Agri-Food and Biosystems Engineering (EEABB), associated with the Specific Research Centre for Agri-Food Technology (Agrotech UPC), and the Design and Assessment group of Broadband Networks and Services (BAMPLA) at the Castelldefels School of Telecommunications and Aerospace Engineering (EETAC), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC), are participating in the development of a monitoring and decision support system for weed management in crops.
- A team of UPC researchers is working to develop a solution to standardise and improve quality control in fermentation processes in the Agrotech area.
- The microÚs project, in which the Agricultural Machinery Unit (UMA) at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC) participates, is designed to demonstrate the use of a certain formulation of copper-based microcapsules to increase the retention of this metal in leaves in intensive production of horticultural crops such as onion, lettuce and tomato. This enables a reduction in the use of the product and an improvement in the sustainability of the process.
- Currently, concerns about sustainability are increasing in the construction sector, due to its contribution to climate change. Approximately a third of carbon dioxide emissions are produced by this sector in the construction phase and in the functioning of buildings.
