Grapevine canopy measurement

Opportunity for

• Digital platform developers interested in new products and services
• Decision support companies interested in new products and services
• Hardware development companies interested in new products and services
• Existing platform companies interested in integrating the solution

Opportunity description:

Industry challenge: Canopy measurement in vineyards is currently undertaken ‘top down’ with low resolution satellite imagery (NDVI) which doesn’t provide information on canopy architecture, leaf area or profile gaps in the canopy. This important information is required to provide vineyard and winery managers and consultants key, objective insights about vineyard management.

Current opportunity: Wine Australia and The University of Adelaide (UA) have developed a VitiCanopy App and computation hardware to deliver ground-based, geospatially resolved canopy measurements that process individual images of canopies taken manually, or ‘on-the-go’ from a moving vehicle. This data is automatically uploaded to the cloud, processed into a GPS-based data file and returned to a user for viewing in the VitiCanopy App within minutes. Unlike NDVI, the analytics are an absolute index (comparable directly between different vines and years), there is no mid-row green confusion, and the data volume is low.

An opportunity exists for a range of companies interested in commercialising the platform or incorporate the platform into other solutions.

Other opportunities: There is potential to expand the solution into other crops where canopy development data enhances management decisions and production.