GVV - GRAPETRUST

ITA has developed the GRAPETRUST project in collaboration with the company Grandes Vinos y Viñedos, whose main objective is focused on the control of harvesting operations by the winery, through real-time monitoring of the location of the grape harvesters and the carts used to transport the grapes, other data obtained from the grape harvesters and information contained in the winery’s transactional systems .

Grandes Vinos y Viñedos is part of the Cariñena Designation of Origin. The Cariñena PDO covers the Ebro Valley, with more than 12,249 hectares of vineyards. There are currently 33 wineries certified by this appellation of origin, which brings together 1,520 winegrowers and produces white, rosé and red wines, crianza wines, liqueur wines and vintage wines.

Problem

Grandes Vinos y Viñedos needs to control the main means used in the grape harvest, i.e. grape harvesters and transport carts, being able to control a series of parameters continuously, such as the position and its time reference associated individually to grape harvesters and carts or trailers. Optimizing grape harvesting at the optimum time, as well as the quantity of grapes harvested in each plot, contributes to the quality of the wines produced in the winery, making it a key factor in optimizing the harvesting process and the products.

Results

For this purpose, ITA has developed a solution of IoT(Internet of Things) Product Development which encompasses the development of a complete IoT platform that integrates from the devices of data capture in the harvesting operation (located in grape harvesters and transport carts), the resilient communication system taking into account the location of the plots in Campo de Cariñena, a software architecture in the cloud that stores and processes data through algorithms of Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence algorithms, and systems for monitoring and tracking the information generated for harvest managers and growers.

From the point of view of electronic product development, proprietary electronics have been developed with precise geolocation capabilities, the ability to integrate analog and digital sensors located on the carts or grape harvesters, the capacity for some distributed computing (edge analytics) and long-distance communication capabilities via 4G, LTE and 5G. A power supply system has also been developed for the electronics on board the transport carts to avoid the need to recharge the battery of each device throughout the harvest.

With a software approach, a software infrastructure has been developed in the cloud with sufficient scale to manage one million messages during the harvest season, integrating data reception modules, data persistence in different databases, integration with the different corporate systems of Grandes Vinos y Viñedos and computing capacity for the processing of this data.

Thanks to algorithms developed with Artificial Intelligence, the data obtained from grape harvesters and transport carts are processed and the system is able to generate alarms for the harvest manager to avoid possible errors or bad practices, as well as to generate valuable information for the farmer and the wineries.

As a result of the project, the winery has successfully monitored the harvesting process in a small number of plots, carts and harvesters and plans to extend the system to all plots in order to control the harvest globally by 2021.

GRAPETRUST in the media

The GRAPETRUST project has had a wide repercussion in the press and digital media. Here are some examples:

• “Collecting grapes and data in a digital harvest” (Heraldo de Aragón).
• “The internet of things reaches Spanish vineyards: this is the Grapetrust project” (El Español).
• “Technology for wine traceability, from the vine to the bottle” (Innovagri).
• “Grandes Vinos participates in the Grapetrust Project: IOT technology applied to wine for traceability from the vine to the bottle” (Tecnovino).

In addition, the program“De puertas al campo” of Aragón Radio dedicated a piece to the project: