Oenobotics Project Wrap Up and Final Review

After 2 years of collaboration and intense work between 6 partners from 3 different countries, the Oenobotics project has officially come to an end. The project was funded under the Open Call of the H2020 agROBOfood project and aimed to enable sustainable oenological practices through the use of a robotic unmanned aerial system (UAS) solution for precision viticulture.

Oenobotics deployed a drone platform that provided innovative and affordable precision viticulture services to vineyard farmers and associations. These services included vine disease diagnostics, vine water-stress diagnostics, precise spot-spraying for treatment of downy mildew and powdery mildew, as well as a wireless and automated drone charging dock.

The solution addressed the needs of wine-producing vineyards located in remote, slippery, elevated locations that are difficult to reach with any machinery. The Oenobotics services assisted vineyard owners in avoiding the health impacts of chemicals and heat on vineyard workers, allowing them to react much faster to extreme weather changes caused by climate change.

In addition, the project’s solution was designed to help farmers to be more sustainable and profitable by producing yields of better quality, using fewer pesticides (in the case of conventional farming), and producing fewer CO2 emissions (in the case of organic farming). The results of the project were demonstrated in an organic vineyard in Greece and were met with positive feedback from customers.

The Oenobotics project has proven to be a successful example of how technology can be leveraged to improve sustainable agriculture practices and benefit both farmers and the environment. As a consequence, the Oenobotics project will provide its results – prototypes developed and datasets – to be scaled up in the SmartVitiNet project (funded by ERDF I3 – Innovation Investments Strand 2a – GREEN – 2021).