Ripen Tech: Measurement of fruit weight in real time – partnership opportunity

Opportunity for

• Agritech platforms looking to integrated hanging fruit quantification analytics into product offering (wine grape, hanging fruit horticulture crops)
• Grape and horticulture producers looking to trial technology that estimates yield of hanging fruit objectively.

Opportunity description

Industry challenge:

Growers are obligated to produce winegrapes to yield and quality specifications to wine companies. This is achieved by destructively cutting off and weighing 10% of the fruit from vineyards or gauging by visual appearance. These methods are not accurate, (~30% off harvested weight) leading to downstream issues including over or under ordering of consumables and staffing for wine production. Winegrape producers have never understood climate effects on bunch weight including heatwaves, cool spells, rainfall events that significantly influence decisions on irrigation management and application. The solution: To measure fruit weight in real time.

Our solution to these issues is the development of an IoT device that weighs the fruit in real-time while still on the plant. This technology provides winegrowers and wine companies the ability to:

• View the impact of their irrigation in real-time and refine immediately without any responsive impact to manage precious water resources more efficiently thus reducing operational costs
• Avoid winegrape fruit loss due to severe weight loss from under irrigation or high heat periods
• View the weight of their winegrapes in real-time to determine their ability to meet their contract obligations
• Significantly Improve yield forecasting reliability while being non-destructive. Current error of around ±30% via destructive method that entails fruit being dropped to the ground.
• Reduce the need for labour intense data collection methods for winegrape weight that only captures a single point in time. In turn this will reduce labour cost
• Incorrect bunch weights leave to downstream over/under cost estimates for wine production
• Too many or not enough staff
• Too much or not enough wine making consumables purchased (Barrels, bottles, tanks, yeast)
• Selection of an optimal harvest date to improve quality to remain competitive in the global market.

Current opportunity:

Seeking engagement from major horticultural producers, industry associations and research funding bodies interested in objective measurement technologies that has formed partnerships with synergistic decision agriculture technology providers in the wine industry. We are exploring grant and other non-dilutive funding opportunities (including investment) to support further expansion, manufacturing, accreditation, and IP protection activities. We are currently collaborating with the wine industry, irrigation software and soil moisture monitoring companies in the trialling, development and refining this one of a kind IoT technology in South Australia, New Zealand and USA. We are open to more partnership opportunities with agritech platforms looking to integrate our technology into their product offering.

Opportunity background:

The measurement of fruit weight in real time is one of a kind technology that has been recently patented in Australia. Patents have been lodged in New Zealand and in the USA.

What is it?

• ‘An agricultural management sensor for hanging fruit’. Currently being used to measure Winegrape bunch weight in real time.
• How does it work?
• Using load cell technology with particle IoT sensors and powered by solar and battery.
• Easily access real time bunch weight (g) that can be integrated with:
• Irrigation software/Soil moisture monitoring systems Relative humidity (%)
• Leaf Wetness Temperature (°C)
• Real time live data viewed through any internet connected device
• New developments in electronics
• ThingSpeak – an online dashboard that utilises a matlab engine in the rear to undertake high-level real-time calculations where in data is pulled in from various locations and sources.
• Multi – Sensor Platforms to weigh multiple bunches at one time on a vine.
• Sensor development has required new PCB board development for multiport functions, where 12 sensors are currently being trialled in the Napa Valley, USA. This new design will be submitted for licensing and certification, a government requirement prior to manufacturing and commercialisation.

Opportunity potential other applications: Potential application in other hanging fruit industries, interested in objective yield measurement analytics that can be integrated with existing decision support agritech platforms.