Today, vineyard pruning still relies heavily on skilled human labor. To address this, an increasing number of research initiatives are exploring the transition from traditional manual practices to fully autonomous robotic systems. The VinPRO project contributes to this effort by developing an integrated robotic pruning platform composed of a custom-designed gripper for vineyard environments, an advanced computer vision system to detect branches, a control algorithm to optimize cutting actions, and a virtual reality (VR) tool to model vines and simulate pruning strategies. At its core is a Kinova Gen3 Lite robotic arm, mounted on a mobile rover that serves as the physical backbone of the system.
To interface with the Kinova robotic arm without dismantling it, the team engineered a lightweight 3D-printed housing—a kind of mechanical “glove” that integrates the actuation mechanism for the pruning shear. They compared a pneumatic option with onboard compressed air and a compact electric motor with battery pack, ultimately selecting the electric solution for its reduced footprint and smoother integration with lab resources. An Arduino microcontroller translates control commands from the central system, triggering the cutting action.