INESC TEC robotics project wins VIDA RURAL award

The METBOTS project, developed by INESC TEC in partnership with ADVID – Vine and Wine cluster, won the “I&D que Marca” award, granted at the 2022 edition of the VIDA RURAL Awards.

The project stems from the collaboration between the Centre for Robotics in Industry and Intelligent Systems (CRIIS) and the Centre for Applied Photonics (CAP), leading to an autonomous platform that enables the automation of metabolic monitoring, combining different navigation and autonomous manipulation techniques with advanced optical instruments of spectroscopy and respective data processing.

The METBOTS robot can perform in-situ and real-time compositional analysis, while presenting geo-referenced metabolic images. These images are correlated and interpreted by an advanced self-learning system based on artificial intelligence that supports precise wine-making practices. The results can also be used to analyse the metabolic response, using genomic scale plant models, in order to study the flows between biochemical cycles according to the physiological response of the plant.

The head researcher, Rui Martins (CAP), explained the importance of this award. “This award emphasises scientific and technological excellence, and was awarded by experts who considered this technology fundamental and highly impactful to the sustainable use of water, fertilisers, and plant disease diagnosis and treatment procedures”, adding that “this type of work has a very significant relevance at the scientific, technological, environmental, economic and social level, particularly considering the climate change and food crisis challenges that the team of INESC TEC’s TEC4AGROFOOD aims to address, working hard to present relevant and concrete solutions”.

The 2022 VIDA RURAL Awards ceremony took place during the AgroIN congress, organised in Lisbon on April 28, with participants returning to a face-to-face event.

The researcher mentioned in this news piece is associated with INESC TEC.