Engineering for a better future

As the Mallee Regional Innovation Centre’s first project is finalised this season, La Trobe University’s Matt Felicetti reflects on the collaborative effort with the dried grape industry to mechanise winter pruning.

Matt is a researcher and computer system engineer at RAMPS Research Lab, and has been working with Dried Fruits Australia and RAMPS director Associate Professor Robert Ross on a robotic pruner that will speed up the pruning process and reduce the need for manual labour.

The prototype, which includes a cutting head attached to a bar on a tractor, uses GPS and lidar technology to follow the grapevine cordon and prune only where needed.

Matt Felicetti speaking at Dried Fruits Australia’s mechanical pruning field day in June 2022.

“I was brought onto the project to explore using machine vision technology to identify and predict the correct cutting position for pruning, enabling the automatic element of the project,” Matt said.

“At the start I explored using camera footage to identify the cordon but found this unreliable. Using lidar is advantageous over a camera, as we don’t need to filter out the ground and can get precise distance measurements.

The GPS is used to estimate the speed of the tractor, so the driver isn’t required to keep a consistent speed as we can dynamically adapt to different speeds.

The researchers also visited the Mildura region to conduct field trials, allowing them to make adjustments and introduce new ideas to improve the pruner, including the GPS speed estimation, a user interface, and automated retraction of the cutting head.

Matt said visiting farms and collaborating with industry and growers had been highly rewarding.

“It has allowed me to learn much about the industry, the problems they face, and innovative ideas they have come up with so far,” he said.

Matt Felicetti working on the pruning prototype with Dried Fruits Australia’s Stuart Putland at Growing Smarter in the Mallee.

“I have been able to get a better understanding of how to make solutions work for them. Being able to change parts of the system and see the effects made learning and adapting much more rewarding.

Seeing people interested in our work was very exciting, and really drives me to want to provide more solutions that engineer for a better future. It has been great to pass on knowledge and information that they can use for other problems or in the future.

Read more about the pruning project here.