The project

The agri-food system needs to innovate the production processes and the quality control through the development of new sensors
and their interconnection (industry 4.0 approach). For this purpose the hyperspectral imaging (HSI) finds several applications. In agri-food the presence of imaging sensors is growing, mainly for real-time monitoring of qualitative parameters. This is due to a strong need to reduce costs, reduce the environmental impacts of monitoring activities and improve the management.

The HSI advantage derives from the presence of spatial resolution over the spectral resolution. However, these instruments show
high investment costs for real operative situations. This is not strictly related to the device itself but to the specific applications
which may require more devices distributed along the processing line to cover all the critical points. Therefore, the costs become
prohibitive for most of the companies pushing the research to develop HSI solutions (integrating customized models based on the application goal) taking into account a huge cost reduction.

The objective and innovative aspect of Optics4Agrifood project (O4A) is to design, build and test a miniaturized and versatile
cost-effective hyperspectral imaging (HSI) device. The development of such technology of optical sensing, capable of acquire hyperspectral images in the visible and near infrared region (Vis/NIR) maintaining low investment costs for each device, could be used for distributed and autonomous monitoring of the production processes in many application fields, including the agri-food. In particular, the device will be tested to solve concrete issues of the viticulture sector being one of the highest added value in the Italian scenario.

Thanks to additive manufacturing (3D print) and the availability on the market of low-cost optoelectronic components, the project
O4A point to innovate the agri-food control management system reducing or even avoiding the use of the conventional analyses
which are environmentally unsustainable and in disagreement with the new ideals of 4.0 industrial development. The big dataset will be handled based on cloud data storage and computing. Specific web-app will be created for the devices control and data
management. The HSI prototype set-up will consist of three stages: (1) hardware and software specifications (e.g. light sources, CMOS, gratings etc.), (2) device test, and (3) modelling.

Three crucial case studies will be considered (to reach TRL=5) to have a all-embracing device to be tested in the viticulture sector
(grape quality, defects and phytosanitary status and vines water status). For each case study, samples will be analyzed using the HSI prototype comparing the performance with commercial instrumentation. As reference for model building, physico-chemical analyses will be performed. Moreover, the economic impacts of the new HSI prototype will be quantified and compared to conventional analytical methods.

Timing: February 2025 – February 2027