Sant’Orsola, a cooperative founded in 1972 in the Trentino Alto-Adige region of Italy, is a market leader in small fruit production. With over 800 producers from across Italy—from Trentino to Sicily, Veneto, Marche, and Calabria—the cooperative grows a wide range of berries including raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, wild strawberries, currants, gooseberries, cherries, and baby kiwi. Over the years, Sant’Orsola has expanded both its operations and innovations, notably becoming a Producer Organization in 1996 and inaugurating its cutting-edge, energy-efficient production facility in 2019.
As a national leader in berry production, Sant’Orsola continually looks for ways to improve its processes and deliver better products. The latest initiative is the AGILEHAND pilot, a cutting-edge technology project designed to enhance berry handling and processing. The primary goals of this pilot are to improve product quality through advanced classification and extraction technologies, reduce production costs, and increase efficiency in berry handling operations.
AGILEHAND project aims to develop smart grading, handling, and packaging solutions for soft and deformable products in agile and reconfigurable lines. Sant’Orsola is one of the four pilot companies that is testing those technologies to understand their impact of real industry environments.
Innovative Technologies in the AGILEHAND Pilot
At the core of the AGILEHAND pilot are several technologies that promise to transform the way Sant’Orsola processes its berries. One of the key innovations is the smart sensing suite’s vision technology, developed by Fundazione Bruno Kessler. This vision system automates the grading of berries, replacing the current manual process with a faster and more accurate system. With this technology, Sant’Orsola can assess the quality of every fruit in a batch, rather than relying on small sample sizes. This ensures a consistent and precise grading system, ultimately improving the final product’s quality.
Another critical element being tested is a collaborative robot, developed by B2A, which will aid in fruit extraction. This robot is designed to handle berries gently, reducing damage during the extraction process. Working in sync with the vision system, it can remove damaged or lower-quality fruit, leaving only the best berries for market.
Two additional technologies—Intelligent Rapid Reconfiguration of Production systems and a Data-driven Digital Twin—are set to further enhance operations. Developed by FHG and UPM, these tools will help Sant’Orsola better predict fruit production and customer orders, allowing for more efficient organization of the production lines
The Benefits: Efficiency, Cost Reduction, and Quality Improvement
The AGILEHAND pilot aims to deliver significant improvements in terms of efficiency, cost reduction, and product quality. The automated vision technology will minimize the need for manual processing, lowering labor costs and increasing grading accuracy. Meanwhile, the collaborative robot will ensure that only high-quality berries reach the market, reducing waste and improving customer satisfaction.
The Digital Twin system will offer real-time simulations of various production configurations, enabling Sant’Orsola to optimize its operations for different berry types and packaging requirements. This flexibility will help the cooperative respond to orders more rapidly and allocate labor more effectively across its production lines.
In conclusion, Sant’Orsola’s partnership with AGILEHAND represents a major leap forward in the way berries are handled, processed, and graded. By incorporating these advanced technologies, the cooperative is not only improving the quality of its products but also setting the stage for a more efficient and cost-effective future.
The integration of automation, robotics, and digital twins could well revolutionize berry production, reinforcing Sant’Orsola’s position as a leader in the industry.
