CERBERUS project

Led by the Agricultural Robotics Laboratory of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, CERBERUS aims to develop an intelligent system to reduce pesticide use and combat six highly damaging pests in three main Mediterranean crops: vineyards, citrus plantations, and olive groves. The system will be validated for three quarantine pests and three commonly treated pests that affect these crops.

CERBERUS addresses this challenge by relying on early pest detection and targeted application of plant protection products within test fields.

The ultimate goal is to provide a new and advanced surveillance system accessible to all sectors, from small farmers to official plant protection services. By harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and other technologies, a digital platform will be developed that will integrate data from: satellite observations of crops (Copernicus), cloud-connected insect traps, agricultural monitoring robots, input from farmers, and even citizen participation. It will therefore be possible to generate risk and incidence maps of parasites in a short time and indications for the treatments to be used, thus reducing the quantities of pesticides and improving their application in the most critical points of the test fields. In this regard, machines for the intelligent distribution of treatments will be developed, capable of delivering variable quantities of product based on the maps developed by the platform, to sustainably eradicate parasites in their initial stages, when the damage is reduced and the impact of plant protection products is high even with low spraying rates.

Our company has made the vineyard where the grapes for the production of Serabrezza are grown available to the project. In April we installed traps for monitoring insects that are already collecting data for the platform. We hope that CERBERUS can help us improve the defense of our crops with the utmost respect for the environment and our beloved territory.