Project description
Smart monitoring improves wine production
The production of wine spans thousands of years. Today, new technology is helping winemakers improve the quality of their wine. Density, turbidity, colour, temperature and alcohol content are vital parameters. To monitor and measure these parameters, the EU-funded Winegrid project has combined fibre optic sensors and communication channels with advanced analytics and AI software. This new technology is more efficient than current manual data collection methods. The project will also miniaturise its design units (to a model that is just 20 cm in diameter) and integrate it with automation and a user interface to enable predictive reporting. The project will work on the sensor’s commercialisation in the wine industry, and introduce a wider range of sensors to monitor other liquids.
Objective
During vinification, to produce quality wine, it is critically important to monitor certain parameters: density, turbidity, colour, level, temperature and alcohol content. However, such monitoring is time and resource intensive, requiring expensive investments in advanced equipment and high skilled personnel. Manual, sparse and timed collection of data also means that the data gathered can neither be used for real time corrective actions nor can be integrated with AI tools to provide forecasting capabilities. The revolutionary Winegrid combines fiber optic sensors and communication channels with advanced analytics and AI software to create a complete monitoring solution. It offers great value as it can reduce the vinification monitoring cost and raise the quality of the wine produced, likely to result in increased sales volume. It gives winemakers instantaneous—anytime and anywhere—access to monitoring data and provide real-time accurate analysis with a precision of 99.9% and accuracy of 99.8%. Compact and easily connectable (IoT) hardware and cloud based software allow Winegrid to scale to any size of wine production.
During the phase 2 project, Watgrid is set to miniaturise the Winegrid design units to 200mm diameter model, develop a control unit to integrate with automation equipment and upgrade AI tools and user interface to enable predictive reporting. Further the industrial supply chain will be validated, in-house assembly line will be scaled up and 200 Winegrid systems will be produced for end user trials. After demonstrating and validating the usability and commercial viability of Winegrid through such in-field trials, Wartgrid will apply for CE and other regulatory certifications. The project results will be exploited to scale up to commercialisation and achieve a successful market introduction of Winegrid. Post commercialization, Watgrid hopes to integrate wider range of sensors to expand the applicability of Winegrid to monitor other liquids.
Fields of science
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculturehorticultureviticulture
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringfibers
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringcolors
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensors
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesopticsfibre optics
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2Coordinator
3810-193 AVEIRO
Portugal
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.