At Azienda Agricola Pantano we are developing the software for the machine of future vineyards

Rovitis 4.0 is the project that actually Azienda Agricola Pantano is leading. The project is founded by Veneto region and aims at obtaining a more robust and usable machine, for more information visit the project.
The project sees cooperation between several partners:
- Azienda Agricola Giorgio Pantano
- Energreen
- University of Maribor
- CET Electronics
- Terre Grosse 
- CIRVE
- CREA
- Confagricultura Veneto

Such partnership is meant for obtaining a new more robust and reliable machine that could be used by grape growers. The new mechanical platform is provided by the industrial partner Energreen and it will be a tracked vehicle with special features necessary for the autonomous guidance.

​Features

As experienced robotic end-users we coordinating the software development team that is coding the "brain" for the new machine.

For facilitating system integration with the crop the main feature available will be the possibility to execute vineyard spraying according to a predesignated path, obtained from end-user requirements. Furthermore, the robot will be able to assist the end-user with data coming from the field so the grape grower will know if a spraying intervention is necessary or not.

Finally, the application is designed with a so called "robot-home" where the robot can fill its water and fuel tanks giving the end-user avoidance from chemicals, ensuring his/her health on the long run.

Autonomous driving test on the new mechanical base

Candiana, 09/09/2019

Autonomous driving test on a vineyard with several turning scenarios. Spraying has been disabled in order to not affect the up-coming harvesting of grapes.

Spraying test on the new mechanical base

Candiana, 14/07/2019

Spraying test with autonomous driving in the vineyard. Rovitis uses a lidar (light detection and ranging) for detecting distances to obstacles and compute the optimal collision-free trajectory.

Effect of spraying on vineyards

Candiana, 02/07/2019

Thermographic survey for in-field evaluation of spraying leaf coverage in project Rovitis 4.0. Courtesy of:  "Centro di ricerca Ingegneria e Trasformazioni Agroalimentari of Monterotondo" Dr. Federico Pallottino e Dr. Marcello Biocca.

Teach & Repeat on the new mechanical base

Candiana, 16/02/2019

The algorithms developed during the first year of the project have now been tested on the new mechanical base. The system works on the Robot Operating System (ROS). 

Teach & Repeat v1.0

Candiana, 20/08/2019

In version 1.0 Rovitis 4.0 is able to follow a recorded path in the vineyards. In the video, the robot follows a pre-recorded path given by a precedent session with an end-user. With such feature we leave the grape grower to decide on the field where the robot should go letting him/her choosing the best path along the needs of the crop.

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