Open Call 2 Winners

6G-PestDetect

Real-time Pest Detection in orchards using 6G data processing and terrestrial drones

6G-PestDetect proposes an autonomous orchard monitoring system that uses drone-captured multimodal imagery, real-time AI at the edge, and ultra-low-latency 6G connectivity to detect pest hotspots and enable precision, geotagged interventions.

Fruit orchards across Europe are under growing pressure from pests that reduce yields, degrade fruit quality, and increase production costs. Current monitoring methods rely heavily on manual scouting, which is labour-intensive, slow, and difficult to scale. As a result, pest outbreaks are often detected too late, leading to avoidable crop losses and excessive pesticide use that negatively impacts the environment and consumer safety. There is a clear need for intelligent, automated solutions that enable early detection, rapid response, and more sustainable pest management. 6G-PestDetect addresses this challenge by proposing an autonomous orchard monitoring system powered by next-generation 6G connectivity. The project will deploy land-based drones equipped with multimodal imaging sensors, including high-resolution and video cameras, to continuously patrol orchard rows. Captured data will be transmitted through 6G-PATH testbeds to edge computing nodes, where AI models trained on real-world datasets will analyse imagery in real time.