Vineyard Vigilant & INNovative Ecological Rover (VVINNER): an autonomous robot for automated scoring of vineyards

"Vitirover" is a solar-powered autonomous mower. Its role is to control the height of the grass in the vineyards. In doing so, this robot is an alternative to tillage which is a big energy consumer, and to the use of herbicides in the vineyards. This robot is now operational and could be a way to reach sustainability for viticulture. As Vitirover is moving between and under rows of vines it is in a better position to observe the grapes and the vigor of the vegetation that if it is placed above the vegetation. Its permanent presence in the vineyards and the temporary high frequency passing through the vineyards make Vitirover an optimal platform for carrying sensors for monitoring vineyards. The project "VVINNER" (Vigilant Vineyard &INNovative Ecological Rover) that we are developing aims to transform Vitirover as a multifunctional robot capable of gathering useful information for monitoring the ecosystem of the vineyard, for early detection of disease risk and pest infestations, for the measurement of meteorological data with high resolution and for early yield estimation. Our analysis focuses on both the relevance of different measurements to be performed and the feasibility of these measures, both from the point of view of cost of sensors and how these measures could be taken automatically in the vine. Our effort in this project is to find a good compromise between the measurement capabilities of sensors, relevance and ease of interpretation of data provided by the sensors and the price of the system on the one hand, and the weight and energy consumption on the other hand. The use of a vision system consisting of a camera operating in the visible and near infrared seems mandatory for our project. The main roles of the vision system are the measure of the vigor of plants, the estimation of leaf area, the detection of insects captured in traps and the monitoring of grape evolution (color, diameter,...). The data collected by the robot is finally recovered by an expert system, which is responsible for interpreting the raw data by transforming them into relevant and easily interpreted information by the winegrowers.