🖖 The vineyard of tomorrow today

Have you seen the Star Trek: Picard series on Paramount+?

One of the first scenes is the main character waking up, walking to the window and opening the terrace doors to get a look at his French vineyard.

The year is 2399.

In the back rows of the vineyard are a couple machines hovering over the vines as they harvest the grapes.

They weren’t the focus of the scene, but a fun detail.

Made me wonder how close we are to those 24th century machines.

Turns out… we’re almost there.

Vine bots

Now with the current laws of physics we can’t hover or levitate. Sadly that means no hoverboards and land speeders. Drones are the only choice for hovering for now.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t have autonomous robots in the fields.

Take Bakus, for example.

Sidenote: I didn’t get the name at first. My American brain read bake-us. Soon my latin brain woke. Bacchus was the Greek god of wine and vegetation. Cute.

Bakus is a vineyard robot created by VitiBot (link below). VitiBot's robots offer improved safety for workers and allow for the delegation of repetitive tasks. Mostly vine trimming and dealing with the weeds.

Winegrowers can save time and gain flexibility while also being more environmentally friendly. Machines like this reducing the use of herbicides and phytosanitary products- products that are used to keep the plants healthy.

An ideal investment for those with sustainability in mind. Because if you’re not using herbicides for the weeds you need to spend a lot more time in the dirt. That’s back-breaking and time-consuming work.

Bakus takes care of that.

Let’s not forget that robots will allow for 24 hour, seven day-a-week production. Sounds like a huge cost reduction to me.

According to their website, the energy usage drops the operating cost to less than €2 per hour.

A team comes in at the beginning to map the vineyards with markers and GPS takes care of the rest They’re accurate to within a few millimetres.

Reduced carbon footprint.

Reduced noise pollution.

Reduced operating costs.

Reduced risk of injury from work related repetitive motions.

Plenty of wins there.

Benefits

Once these innovations spread, we’ll see a new wave of innovation as possibilities open up.

Autonomous robots can perform tasks with extraordinary precision. They’ll ensure uniformity in

• vineyard management

• grape harvesting

• and the winemaking processes.

Robots can work around the clock without getting tired during labor-intensive tasks like pruning and harvesting.

Equipped with sensors and AI algorithms, autonomous robots collect real-time data on

• soil conditions

• vine health

• and grape ripeness

Winemakers can make informed decisions for optimal grape quality and yield. AI and machine learning can determine what’s a grape and what’s not a grape.

What’s a ripe grape versus an unripe one.

A healthy grape versus a damaged/diseased grape.

And it’s only the beginning.

I left a couple links at the bottom of other wine robots. Check them out too. Remember that these machines first existed to help the workforce with their tasks.

But they’ve served a double benefit as the workforce has been steadily shrinking.

The next time you pop open a bottle of pinot noir or even a Remy Martin cognac, think about it.

What if a robot helped prepare it just for you?

Santé.