Category: News

We will be launching another initiative to accompany the SCORPION Monthly Talks Podcast series. This will involve the development of a series of Factsheets containing content related to the topics discussed in each episode.

These fact sheets will be distributed through the project’s communication channels and will provide listeners with additional resources to supplement their understanding of the podcast’s topics.

They will become a useful tool for stakeholders and the general public to gain a comprehensive understanding of each episode and to deepen their knowledge on the topic.

The SCORPION project is launching SCORPION Monthly Talks, a monthly Podcast series, as part of its activities this year. Listeners will be able to understand the progress of the project, its findings and its advances. Each episode will involve experts from the project team, who will discuss their research and provide insights into the challenges and solutions for the viticulture industry. In addition, the content will explore precision farming, robotics and new technologies to help develop viticulture practices and ensure sustainability, productivity and efficiency.

To accompany each episode, corresponding videos with subtitles in the speaker’s native language and English will be available on the SCORPION project’s YouTube page. Through this initiative, the project seeks to spread awareness and facilitate knowledge-sharing among the viticulture industry and the general public.

SCORPION has successfully accomplished the III Integration phase!

As part of a continuous integration process, the AGROB platform has been upgraded with the integration of a diesel power motor generator and mechanical interfaces (integrations I, II, and III), followed by the integration of precision sprayers and navigation and safety systems into AGROB V20.

TEYME coordinated the III Integration step in February 2023, when the autonomous spraying quality of the AGROB V20 platform, integrated with two precision sprayers, was tested and validated in a real vineyard as part of the SCORPION robot demonstration at the World FIRA 2023 in France.

For more information on the integrations steps, click here.

The robot developed within the SCORPION project was showcased at the World FIRA 2023, an international event for AgRobotics and autonomous solutions for agriculture, held in Toulouse (France) from 7-9 February. At the AGROBIOPOLE venue, scientific workshops, exhibitions from key players in the agricultural sector, and live demonstrations took place.

Representatives from project partners INESC TEC, TEYME, CNR-STEMS, WUR, and EURECAT attended the event. The SCORPION WETA robotic platform was featured at the TEYME booth, where a live demonstration was conducted showcasing autonomous spraying, mapping, and navigation capabilities.

For more information about the event, click here.

On the 18th of January 2023, the SCORPION project partners gathered at the INESC TEC in Porto, Portugal, for their mid-term review meeting. The meeting was attended by the Project Officer from the European Union Agency for the Space Programme – EUSPA and two External Experts, who took the opportunity to discuss the project’s progress and achievements, as well as the challenges faced in the first 18 months.

Besides the review meeting, there was also a demonstration of the robots developed in the scope of the SCORPION EU Project and a visit to the excellent laboratory facilities where the research is carried out by cluster PT.

We are very grateful to all our partners for attending and contributing to the discussion. Through our collective efforts, we can make a meaningful difference in the advancement of cost-effective robots for intelligent precision spraying.

“Topological map-based approach for localization and mapping memory optimization”

Aguiar, A.S.; Santos, F.N.; Santos, L.C.; Sousa, A.J.; Boaventura-Cunha, J. (2022)

Abstract: Robotics in agriculture faces several challenges, such as the unstructured characteristics of the environments, variability of luminosity conditions for perception systems, and vast field extensions. To implement autonomous navigation systems in these conditions, robots should be able to operate during large periods and travel long trajectories. For this reason, it is essential that simultaneous localization and mapping algorithms can perform in large-scale and long-term operating conditions. One of the main challenges for these methods is maintaining low memory resources while mapping extensive environments. This work tackles this issue, proposing a localization and mapping approach called VineSLAM that uses a topological mapping architecture to manage the memory resources required by the algorithm. This topological map is a graph-based structure where each node is agnostic to the type of data stored, enabling the creation of a multilayer mapping procedure. Also, a localization algorithm is implemented, which interacts with the topological map to perform access and search operations. Results show that this approach is aligned with the state-of-the-art regarding localization precision, being able to compute the robot pose in long and challenging trajectories in agriculture. In addition, it is proved that the topological approach innovates state-of-the-art memory management. The proposed algorithm requires less memory than the other benchmarked algorithms and can maintain a constant memory allocation during the entire operation. This consists of a significant innovation since this approach opens the possibility for the deployment of complex 3D SLAM algorithms in real-world applications without scale restrictions.

Click here to find the full paper

On the 15th of December 2022, partners of the SCORPION project joined together virtually for a productive General Assembly. Participants discussed the project’s current status, the progress that had been made thus far, and plans for the future. Everyone involved was highly motivated and eager to work together to ensure the project’s success.

 It is clear that the SCORPION project is well on its way to achieving its goals.

On December 13th, 2022, in Catalonia, SCORPION project was presented by the partners from INNOVI at the Vallformosa winery in the context of the “Smartech Connection”.

This annual event, organized by the Smartech Cluster, focused on the digitalization of the wine industry and provided attendees with a unique opportunity to explore the challenges and potential of Grape & Wine Smart Technologies. Following the presentation, participants enjoyed a tour of the winery.

For more information about the event, click here.

EURECAT, a partner of the SCORPION project, participated in the Iberian  Robotics Conference – ROBOT 2022, which took place from 23-25  November 2022 in Zaragoza, Spain. The event was focused on  showcasing the robotic research and development of new applications in  the Iberian Peninsula.

At the Conference, EURECAT presented the work entitled “SCORPION: Robust localization and mapping for smart precision spraying in steep slope vineyards”.

This presentation provided an overview of the project and highlighted the initial results of the localisation and mapping system developed by EURECAT for the SCORPION robotic platform, as part of the Work Package 3 – “Perception, Localisation, and Autonomous Navigation”.

The next edition of the Iberian Robotics Conference – Iberian  Robotics Conference – ROBOT 2023 will take place in Coimbra, Portugal, on November 2023.

For more information, click here.