Profitable Stonefruit Research

Technology in the Stonefruit research orchards at Tatura

Researchers at Agriculture Victoria will be testing technologies to determine their application to support research, automation and on-farm capability.

Technologies that will be utilised in the research orchards include:

  • LiDAR, vision sensors, artificial neural networks, thermal, and near-infrared and multi-sensor fusion,
  • drainage flux sensors and displacement transducers to measure fruit and trunk growth,
  • in-orchard RFID and NFC tree and fruit identification,
  • IoT enabled irrigation control and feedback sensors,
  • use of laser technology to write on fruit to enable research precision,
  • precision GPS (horizontal and vertical to identify fruit location)
  • the electronic nose and the DA-meter for fruit maturity and quality
  • satellite, UAVs, on-ground vehicles (potentially robot), handheld and permanently mounted technologies.