An expert system for vineyard management based upon ubiquitous network technologies

Abstract

Vineyard operations for quality wines production are currently based upon costly and time-consuming manual sampling operations required to assess the maturity phases of grapevines. The ripening process however is significantly influenced by the environmental parameters which nowadays can be effectively monitored by means of ubiquitous computing technologies. Besides the possibility of gathering data, hence, suitable tools are required to support the vineyard management process. The present research concerns the development of an expert system to effectively manage the vineyard operations. The methodology is based on the analysis of the time series of indices related to the maturation phases by means of referenced growth models, and on the prediction of the achievement of maturation thresholds. The paper also reports the results of an experimental study on a Sicilian vineyard.