1. Optimization of mechanical design and external appearance. A new external cover has been designed for VineScout prototype, achieving the third and last version of the robot, VS-3. It was always taken into account the harsh working conditions in the field, and the importance of an attractive look regarding marketing movements. Regarding traction abilities and power sufficiency, there have been some reinforcement in the mechanical torque and batteries.
2. Industrialization of internal electronics: Fail-safe capabilities and environmental endurance are being achieved by designing a suite of modular electronic blocks that have been fabricated, and tested. This rational design enhances the seamless integration of software and electromechanical devices.
3. Maps validation and sensing capabilities: Maps built by the robot need to deliver truthful data, so it can be statistically compared to alternative measurements. Getting truthful data means having taken data with the appropriate sensors, thus, sensors were tested in field, not only integrated in the robot, but also independently from it, to check the values given.
4. Software refinement, optimization, and market preparation: Efforts were done to improve software performance in terms of runtime velocity and fail-safe response. As new sensors have been incorporated, modifications in programming were necessary.
5. Construction of three prototypes with growing capabilities: An active iterative process has been necessary to converge to the optimal solution, which for agricultural environments requires heavy testing in actual environments.
6. Demonstration: the Steering Weeks of the project took place in Portugal, in the commercial fields where the VineScout robot trials were. During the Agronomy Days of the Steering Weeks, the Consortium invited external people to see, touch, and even manage the robot, while they could make questions about either the robot or the project itself.
7. Market introduction tactics, end-user acceptability, and dissemination: The most important activities for the project regarding visibility is done during the Steering Weeks. In the Agronomy Day, people with different backgrounds can give their opinion and tell the Consortium their suggestions, which are extremely valuable for the success of the project, as people can talk about their experiences with other robots.
8. Attendance to trade shows on robotics and agricultural equipment has shown that interest in agricultural robotics is high, and competition will increase in the following years. The service robot market continues growing as well as the agricultural robots market.
