Dear Sirs,

My name is André Sá and I work at INESC TEC’s Industry Partnership Service.

I would like to invite FIWARE to be part of the External Expert Advisory
Board of the Horizon 2020 project, named Slopebot, whose application to
call H2020-SFS-2016-2017, Topic SFS-05-2017 - Robotics Advances for
Precision Farming (https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/
desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/topics/sfs-05-2017.html) is being prepared,
with INESC TEC as Coordinator.

INESC TEC (https://www.inesctec.pt/ip-en?set_language=en&cl=en) is a
Portuguese Research and Technological Development non-profit private
association, with a long experience in what concerns European projects.

The project consortium is composed of, besides INESC TEC, TEKEVER AU (PT),
DFKI (DE), INSTITUT FRANCAIS DE LA VIGNE ET DU VIN (FR), ceiA3 (ES), CNR -
IMAMOTER (IT), CENTRE DE RECHERCHES POUR LA VITICULTURE DE MONTAGNE (IT),
KommTek Intelligente Lösungen GmbH (DE), INOVISA (PT) and ADVID (PT).

The External Expert Advisory Board, which will be coordinated by Prof.
Fernando Bianchi de Aguiar, is currently composed of Pulverizadores Rocha
(PT), BOBARD (FR) and FederUnacoma (IT), and has a support letter from CEMA
(BE).

Here is a brief description of the project:

*Many modern farmers already use high-tech solutions, e.g.
digitally-controlled farm implements and even unmanned aerial vehicles.
However, current systems still have significant drawbacks, in particular in
terms of flexibility, efficiency, robustness, high operator cost and
capital investment. Robots, in precision farming, not only promise to
increase yields by optimising the growth process, but could also lead to
lower fertiliser and pesticide usage and improved soil quality through more
targeted interventions. ProjectSlopebot is perfectly aligned to these call
goals by researching mobile robotic solutions for the main drawbacks and
researching new sprayers tools/approaches to answer to a common need of
permanent crops in what concerns precision spraying techniques/technology.
*

*Project Slopebot is driven by a particular use-case that is precision
spraying in steep slope vineyards, that is a one common irregular farmland
area. These vineyards represent approximately 10 to 12% of the European
wine surface and cover more than 12 countries. Besides, steep slope
agriculture has worldwide an enormous potential to help feed the next 7
billions of new people.*

*The European End Users Associations are asking for automated solutions
that: reduce the losses and, consequently, the amount of
phytopharmaceuticals used during the spraying (pesticides mitigation
challenge); reduce the exposition of the human worker to pesticides during
spraying; increase the spraying system availability to 24 h/365 days;
reduce cost; reduce water usage; and reduce human direct intervention in
the extreme conditions of steep slope viticulture (harsh terrain
conditions, safety issues, very difficult access and so on).*

Slopebot* addresses this challenge with a multi-actor approach by
integrating the latest advanced algorithms for localization, mapping,
path-planning and image processing into existing solutions to produce a
modular and reliable precision spraying robot for steep slope viticulture.
Combining these technologies, the final solution is formed: a Precision
Spraying Robot for Steep Slope Viticulture. The Technologies Readiness
Levels (TRL) ar**e on level 4 and will move towards level 6, which will
allow to reach the steep slope Viticulture/Agricultural Machinery market
that is unexplored by robotics and worth’s nearly 900M€; and compete in the
global Agricultural Machinery market which reached a value of 58 500M€
(where tractors under 50 brake horsepower - the class where Slopebot is
inserted - remain dominant, accounting for 61.5% of the
sales). Slopebot incorporates the requirements from Steep Slope
Viticulturists and implements five usage case validations in real world
operational environments: Portugal, Germany, France, Spain and Italy.*

*The project will support all expenses for traveling and we will have 6
meetings during the 36 project months.*

Attached, please find the Expression of Interest Letter, to fill in and
send it back, should you accept the invitation.

Should you have any doubt, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

-------

[image: INESC TEC]

Filipe Neves dos Santos (MSc, PhD)

Centre for Robotics and Intelligent Systems [ criis.inesctec.pt
<http://criis.inesctec.pt/>]

INESC TEC (Polo FEUP) (*www.inesctec.pt)*

T +351 22 041 3317

Mobile: +351 916 156 516

Emails: fbsantos@inesctec.pt <filipe.n.santos@inesctec.pt>

fbnsantos@fbnsantos.com <filipe.n.santos@inesctec.pt>

Personal Website: www.fbnsantos.com

*ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8486-6113
<http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8486-6113>*

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