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
- The greatest losses in the viticulture sector come from pathologies caused by fungi. Botrytis cinerea has the greatest economic impact, as it attacks all the green […]
- The 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 Agricultural Machinery Unit (UMA) of the UPC is coordinating the national project Smart Spraying for Sustainable Vineyards and Olive Trees (PIVOS). The aim of the project is to demonstrate the benefits of smart spraying of plant health products for sustainable use of pesticides in vineyards and olive trees. These benefits include maintaining biological efficacy and reducing economic and environmental costs.
- Researchers at the Institute of Robotics and Industrial Informatics (IRI) and the Agricultural Machinery Unity (UMA) of the UPC are working on the European project CANOPIES,whose aim is to explore a new paradigm of collaboration between people and robots in the context of precision agriculture for permanent crops. The focus is the operation of harvesting and pruning dessert grape vines.
