EVOCATO, the tool that predicts avocado ripeness with Artificial Intelligence, perfects its prototype

• After the successes achieved in previous phases, Evocato reaches its third phase to achieve a more solid and stable prototype tool.
• The onTech Innovation cluster has coordinated this initiative, funded by the Ministry of Industry through the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
• The tool is the result of work carried out over three years by the University of Granada, Nazaríes intelligenia, Terceto, Fidesol and La Caña.

According to data provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA), Spain closed the 2022 campaign with an avocado production of over 116,000 tonnes. A figure that represents, according to the same source, an increase of more than 16% with respect to the 2021 campaign.

Due to their phenological and organoleptic characteristics, the four main varieties grown in our country are Hass, Fuerte, Reed and Bacon. All of them share a common characteristic that is highly valued in an environment where care for the natural environment is a priority: their low carbon footprint, thanks to the proximity of the consumer markets for these fruits.

For some time now, the consortium made up of onTech Innovation – a leader in the lines of work it is developing in the field of technology -, the ECsens research group of the University of Granada, the Free Software R&D Foundation (FIDESOL), nazaries intelligenia, Grupo La Caña – one of the largest agricultural organisations in southern Spain – and Terceto Comunicación, has been working on the Evocato project. An initiative aimed at proposing a tool for determining the dry matter of avocados -and, therefore, their degree of maturity-, based on machine learning and Artificial Intelligence.

The project has been developed in two previous phases –Streaming and 360– and now reaches its third and final phase of study that will allow us to deepen our knowledge about the behaviour of the mobile app and the non-invasive sensor that are set to revolutionise the avocado production sector, thanks to their system for determining the degree of ripeness of the fruit.

This third and final phase of Evocato has focused on one of the three aforementioned varieties: the Bacon. A type of avocado that is characterised by its proliferation on the coasts of Granada and Malaga and its early harvest. In other words, thanks to the Bacon variety, the end consumer can enjoy seasonal and local avocados from mid-autumn onwards.