Image-based quantification of berry shrivel in vineyards using explainable AI
Abstract
Berry Shrivel (BS, Traubenwelke) is a sugar accumulation disorder of grapevine of unknown causes, having a great negative impact on grape quality and incalculable risks for yield losses, and for which no reliable curative practices are available. The Austrian autochthonous red wine cultivar Blauer Zweigelt is heavily affected by BS, although the appearance of BS symptoms as well as their intensity can change from year to year making it unpredictable and hard to quantify. This has led to winegrowers avoiding planting Blauer Zweigelt with a consequent loss of typicity for the Austrian wine landscape. Therefore, the BAISIQ project aims to develop a reliable and standardized method to estimate BS occurrence in vineyards, and as a consequence yield loss. To do so, the BAISIQ partnership includes experts in the fields of grapevine biology working on BS, explainable artificial intelligence (AI), and Image-based yield Quantification on the proximal and remote scale. The interdisciplinary group of plant physiologists, computer scientist and technicians will apply multi-sensor technologies, machine learning algorithms and remote sensing equipment to achieve both, scientific and applied aims of BAISIQ. Ultimately, we aim to quantify BS in vineyards, to develop a service or a usable application, and to start establishing a BS database. Thereby we will adapt and further establish current grape cluster recognition machine learning methods and translate this knowledge into a high-throughput remote sensing application. A pre-symptomatic BS diagnostic would be of major relevance and highly innovative, and the knowledge on the expected yield loss would empower winegrowers to adapt their harvesting dates, cellar capacities and targeted wine styles. Furthermore, the innovative and pioneering approach developed in BAISIQ combining multi-sensor phenotyping and machine learning AI could be applied to other relevant features in viticulture.
Project staff
Michaela Griesser
Assoc. Prof. Priv.Doz.DI Dr.nat.techn. Michaela Griesser
michaela.griesser@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-95814
Project Leader
01.05.2025 - 30.04.2028
Sarhan Khalil
Sarhan Khalil M.Sc.
sarhan.khalil@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-95820
Project Staff
01.05.2025 - 30.04.2028
BOKU partners
External partners
4D-IT GmbH
partner
UAS St. Pölten
partner