WineSens

• Call for tender: the project has received funding from the program POR FESR Tuscany 2014-2020, Azione 1.1.5 Sub. A1. Call for tender N. 2 - MSMEs Research and Development Projects
• Domain: IoT and Industry 4.0 
• Duration: 2020-2022 (18 months + 6 extension)

WineSens project aims at realizing a control system for the wine-making process using the paradigms of Industry 4.0, in order to automate processes and ultimately obtain high quality wines.

The starting point the technological evolution in the oenological field, a complex and continuously expanding sector that requires constant monitoring of certain parameters during the winemaking process. The wine industry needs simple, fast and, above all, reliable methods for an objective, real-time evaluation of the quality of grapes and wine, in order to effectively control all the steps of the process and act accordingly in respect to the desired quality and type of wine that is being produced.

WineSens’ objective is to realize a first example of a new and "intelligent" wine-making system, generating an actual revolution in the enological sector, making it possible to talk about precision enology. This purpose will be put into action thanks to the acquisition of data from different sources such as: field data, process data from the winery, laboratory analytical data, evaluations of agronomist (in the field) and of the winemaker (in the winery).

Real time monitoring of the winemaking process, even from remote, will be a fundamental turning point, and it will be made possible by information technologies that will allow data transmission in a very short amount of time, such as cloud-based data storage and Artificial Intelligence (AI), which will allow fast data processing and process automation.

In order to achieve these goals WineSens will build:

• An intelligent winemaking plant 4.0, consisting of wine vessels with integrated multi-target IoT hubs and sensors, for real-time and online process monitoring and automation;
• A hub of multitarget IoT sensors, for real time monitoring of compounds of interest;
• A middleware layer platform for cloud integration, for the standardized collection of analytical data from heterogeneous LIMS of external laboratories, through pre-defined standards. This system aims to create a standard for processing, communication and direct use for the winemaker (a user-friendly App), that will be employed for all the data that are transmitted to the traceability softwares, including the WineSens software that is developed for this project;
• Connectors for data collection from sensors and laboratories. Data will be historicized on a cloud-based database with high-speed data writing;
• An AI and Machine Learning infrastructure that stores and analyzes data for conducting predictive analytics for sensor validation and statistical evaluation of algorithms for ultimately defining the quality of wine;
• A DSS (Decision Supporting System) prototype.

The WineSens system will allow to:

• Monitor specific parameters that characterize the winemaking process, both simultaneously and in real-time, in automation with the equipment (e.g. pumps, agitators, filters), and modify the process in order to achieve the previously set oenological goal;
• Optimize the tartaric/colloidal/color stabilization process and reduce the use of adjuvants to the minimum, thus lowering the cost of processing and also obtaining a higher-quality wine;
• Conduct the analysis of the main oeno-chemical characteristics of the product (juice, wine and aromas), without a sample preparation, replacing the laboratory analysis for these parameters.

The analytical hub will consist of electronic sensors (specific and non-specific, such as electronic noses for headspace analysis) and optical sensors (UV-VIS-NIR), while the hardware will be centralized in a remote facility that will storage all the extensive data in the cloud. Such data will be quickly processed thanks to an Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning system, and the analytical result will be sent back, via cloud and within minutes, to the winery (for a fully-automated modification of the process), and/or to the winemaker (for the consultation of the analytical data) in order to control and manage the winemaking process with accuracy and in the best possible way.