Consortium: UK Agri-Tech Centre, Outfield Technologies, Vinescapes, JoJo’s Vineyard, Antobot, and University of Lincoln.
Duration: 2023 – 2026
The VISTA Project (funded by Innovate UK through DEFRA’s Farming Innovation Programme and UKRI’s Transforming Food Production Challenge) is setting a new standard for digital vineyard mapping. As precision agriculture evolves, detailed and accurate maps of row and vine locations are becoming essential tools for modern vineyards.
VISTA will create high-resolution digital maps, capturing vineyards down to the individual vine level. These maps will serve as the foundation for monitoring key vineyard conditions, including climate, weather, crop health, soil moisture, fruit counts, and fruit quality. Data will be collected using drones, robots, and in-field sensors, making real-time insights accessible to growers and agritech companies.
Designed to meet both current and future needs, the VISTA map will support increased automation and smarter decision-making in the industry. To showcase its impact, the project will develop two precision farming applications tackling major challenges in viticulture:
1. Accurate Harvest Yield Predictions – Traditional methods struggle to estimate yields effectively. VISTA’s high-precision fruit count and crop load maps will significantly improve harvest forecasting.
2. Targeted Chemical and Fertiliser Applications – Instead of applying treatments across an entire vineyard, VISTA maps will enable precision plans that direct chemicals only where needed, reducing costs and environmental impact.
By combining cutting-edge mapping technology with real-world applications, the VISTA Project aims to make UK vineyards more efficient, profitable, and sustainable. Moreover, by establishing an open standard, VISTA can be adopted globally, shaping the future of vineyard management.
AGRIDS (Agricultural Robotics Integrated Data Storage)
As the academic partner in this project, our team has developed AGRIDS (Agricultural Robotics Integrated Data Storage) as an open-source system that provides comprehensive data management (mainly of infrastructure data) for agricultural environments, with a particular focus on viticulture.
The system enables users to create, import, visualise, and export detailed vineyard maps with features like blocks, vine rows, and other infrastructure. AGRIDS utilises a Fiware Orion backend combined with a Flask web application frontend, allowing for the structured storage of agricultural data through various entity types including vineyards, blocks, vine rows, and individual vines.
The system supports multiple data import methods, including drawing vineyard maps from scratch or importing CSV files with labelled or unlabelled end posts, while also offering various export options such as GeoJSON files, PDF reports, and specialised robotic navigation maps. As part of projects like VISTA (Vineyard Information System for Technology and Automation), AGRIDS serves as a foundational platform for precision agriculture applications, enabling more efficient, profitable and sustainable vineyard management through technologies like drones, robots, and in-field sensors.
Further details can be found in our publication “AGRIDS: an Advanced Multi-Modal Mapping Architecture for Robotics and Agriculture”
Contact: Riccardo Polvara and Marc Hanheide