Washington State University’s sensor-laden Chardonnay block collects data for AI scientists and offers demonstrations for growers.
Automating vineyard irrigation requires a network of sensors, solar panels, wires and data loggers that can be at risk of run-ins with equipment.
That’s one of the first lessons the engineers learned at Washington State University’s Smart Vineyard demo farm in Prosser. Sprayers bumped sensors out of position. The prepruner sliced through wires. Solar panels had to be taken down before over-the-row harvesters could head into the block.
“There is a whole bunch of machinery that goes under the canopy, so you have to put up protection for your soil moisture wires,” said Jake Schrader, the technician for the demo farm and an agricultural engineering graduate student. “Another big frustration was that anything that was mounted over the canopy was susceptible to being knocked down.”
He shared this insight — and the advice to consider in advance the interaction of sensor placement with equipment operations — with growers who visited the Smart Vineyard field day in late July. The demo farm is funded by the AgAID Institute, a consortium of agriculture and technology researchers led by WSU, and the Washington State Wine Commission.
Schrader said the goal of the farm is to collect data for a team of artificial intelligence researchers who are working to develop better irrigation recommendation models. It also offers growers a chance to see the sensors in action.
