VitiSense
The Upper Rhine region is home to some of Europe’s most renowned vineyards, yet this wine-growing heritage is under threat from vine diseases. Fungi slowly destroy the vines from within, often without any noticeable symptoms for years on end. By the time signs become visible on the wood or leaves, it is often already too late: yields decline, the vines die off, and entire plots must be grubbed up and replanted. Today, detection relies mainly on visual observation of discoloured leaves and dead stems. However, this simple and cost-effective method has its limitations: the symptoms resemble those caused by other stress factors such as drought or nutrient deficiency, and do not always reflect the internal condition of the wood. Interventions therefore come too late and are less effective. Although state-of-the-art detection methods exist in the laboratory, these are too costly and too complex for everyday use.
In response, the VitiSense project is developing two innovative and practical tools for viticulture: a portable optical sensor that measures photosynthetic activity and leaf fluorescence to detect invisible infestation at an early stage, and a portable MRI device, adapted from the medical field, which is capable of visualising the interior of the vine and localising necrotic areas.
These devices can be used individually or as part of a network of sensors to enable continuous monitoring and targeted interventions, thereby reducing losses and costs. The electronics within these instruments are encapsulated to make them weatherproof.
The project brings together a cross-border, multidisciplinary consortium: researchers in the fields of viticulture and vine diseases from the University of Haute-Alsace and the Julius Kühn Institute, specialists in optics and MRI from the University of Strasbourg and the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW), experts in device design and encapsulation from Furtwangen University, as well as partners from industry. Together, they are developing prototypes, testing them in the laboratory and subsequently in the vineyards, and making them resilient to on-site conditions.