Treasury Wine Estates to trial robotic sensor at selected vineyards

Tech start-up The Yield and Japan’s Yamaha Motor Co will trial a new unmanned vehicle in Treasury Wine Estates vineyards.

Treasury Wine Estates will use the company’s technology on selected vineyards in Australia later this year and at its US west coast vineyards from next year. Picture: AAP

Treasury Wine Estates, the makers Penfolds, Wolf Blass and Lindemans, is taking a step into the brave new world of robotics with a deal to trial the use of unmanned vehicles in its vineyards that reviews data to predict weather patterns and make informed decisions on when to spray, plant and harvest.

In conjunction with agricultural technology company The Yield Technology Solutions, Treasury Wine Estates will use the company’s technology on selected vineyards in Australia later this year and at its US west coast vineyards from next year.

The Yield has previously been trialling its sensor and mobile phone application at Treasury Wine Estates since a deal was first struck in November but now Japanese giant Yamaha Motor will jump on board by having the sensors attached to its unmanned vehicles, a precursor to robots one day gliding through the vineyards.

Last year, the artificial intelligence start-up, The Yield, secured an $11m injection led by Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory Silicon Valley, the Japanese car giant’s VC arm, and the Bosch Group, and now it will use its AI technology to help Treasury Wine Estates manage the cultivation and care of some of its vineyards.

The trial will commence in Australia later this year and the US from early next year, and will bring together Yamaha’s robotics platform with The Yield’s microclimate, software, analytics, and AI platform.

Yamaha already provides commercial services in the US across the agricultural sector with a focus on irrigated crops. The trial with Treasury Wine Estates aims to improve harvest prediction accuracy by gathering growth stage data through visual data collection.

It also aims to test and develop emerging autonomous robot technology, and optimise spray effectiveness by integrating weather data and spray guidelines to maximise autonomous spray efficiency.

Although robots will not yet spray or pick grapes – or conduct a wine tasting – it is the first step into a future whereby agricultural companies such as Treasury Wine Estates rely more on AI and robotics to help guide their timing around harvesting, spraying and watering.

Greg Pearce, general manager of Vineyards for Treasury Wine Estates said the winemaker was increasingly investing in new technology and innovations to adapt to the climate trends impacting its business.

“Treasury Wine Estates is proud of our ongoing partnership with The Yield to improve the predictability of weather and climate, crop yield, harvest timing and fruit grading – all critical drivers of wine quality. This latest industry-leading collaboration brings together our viticulture and winemaking expertise with world class robotics and automation to enable us to better predict optimal harvest opportunities and efficiently irrigate our vineyards,” he said

Jim Aota, chief executive Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory Silicon Valley said the deal represented a symbiotic relationship between analytics and robotics as the future for intensive irrigated crops.

The Yield founder and managing director Ros Harvey said recent industry feedback had shown the company’s tech can double the effective spray windows for robots using its patented microclimate and growth stage predictions.

“This improves robotic spray efficiency and effectiveness while improving environmental performance. At the same time, the robots can passively collect visual data that we can feed back into our algorithms to continually improve them.

“We’re seeing an accelerated demand for robotics globally particularly in intensive irrigated crops. This trend is likely to grow,” she said.