Tech trial a win for SA grape growers

Researchers from the University of Adelaide (computer science, engineering, mathematics) attended workshop sessions earlier this year at the Loxton Research Centre along with Wine Australia and Riverland Wine. The aim was to consider ways in which researchers could collaborate with wine growers to develop systems and workflows that are easily accessible to all winegrowers to enable increased productivity and efficiency across vineyards in the region. This would be achieved using AI, machine learning and robotic vision.

The outcome from these workshops was an application to the State Government for a share of SAWIDS grant program. 

A team from the University of Adelaide lead by Paul Dalby (AIML), Seth Westra (ECMS) put together the grant: A Vineyard Guidance System to Support Competitive and Responsive Business Operations.

The proposed Digital Vineyard Guidance System will help growers optimise production processes, manage risks and drive continual improvements in vineyard profitability and sustainability. The guidance system represents a technology ‘platform’ that can provide real-time information on current and projected future status across a vineyard—at high spatial and temporal resolutions and across a broader variety of variables of interest—as well and will provide the basis for optimising farm management decisions. Ultimately, the technology platform is expected to be the critical enabler in supporting the wider vision of precision vineyard control, whereby all areas of the vineyard are managed to precise performance specifications in order to achieve fit-for-purpose outputs. 

The team has been successful with this application and received a grant worth $134,000.