VigilaSense wins the “Technical Evolution” award at EIMA 2026

The device that “listens” to the vibrations of tines and ploughshares to predict their wear was honoured on 29 September at Palazzo Re Enzo in Bologna, in the same year the Castel Guelfo cooperative celebrates its 45th anniversary.

An international jury of experts selected VigilaSense, the system developed by Zappettificio Muzzi to monitor the wear of agricultural tools, as one of the 35 technologies given this year’s “Technical Evolution” award at the EIMA International Technical Innovations Contest. The award was presented on 29 September at Palazzo Re Enzo in Bologna. The ceremony is held every year ahead of the exhibition itself, which runs from 10 to 14 November in Bologna.

Knowing when to replace a soil-engaging tool has always been difficult. The most common parameters, operating hours or distance covered, say little about actual wear. The same tool can wear at very different rates depending on soil type, soil moisture, working depth and working speed. This uncertainty has real consequences. A tool kept in service beyond its useful life lowers the quality of field operations, raises fuel consumption by up to 40 percent and puts extra stress on the machine’s mechanical components. As it wears, it also vibrates more and more, and those vibrations reach the operator directly, with possible effects on their health.

VigilaSense tackles the problem from a different angle. A proprietary algorithm correlates changes in the tool’s vibration behaviour during operation with its actual physical degradation, on both rotary and towed implements. MUZZI VigilaSense picks up machine vibrations and analyses how they change during operation. From this it reports the wear condition of MUZZI tools and their Remaining Useful Life (RUL) under current operating conditions. It is designed for two scenarios. It can work as a stand-alone device that fits any existing equipment, whatever the make or year of manufacture. It can also be integrated via ISOBUS, the communication standard used by most new-generation agricultural machinery, so its readings show up on the same terminal the operator already uses to control the machine.

Farmers and agricultural contractors are the first to benefit. They can avoid replacing a tool that still has useful life left, and also avoid running one that is already too worn. VigilaSense may also appeal to agricultural machinery manufacturers. Many components are already monitored electronically, but soil-engaging tools have so far been the only element without this kind of monitoring. VigilaSense fills exactly this gap, strengthening OEMs’ value proposition and setting them apart from competitors.

The project was born in Zappettificio Muzzi’s Research & Development department, which chose to work with highly qualified external partners. On the technology side, the company found its partner in B4, a specialist in IIoT and predictive maintenance. Together they built the entire system architecture: from the hardware, with co-designed and co-developed sensors, to the data analytics and the development of the algorithm that interprets the data.

“With VigilaSense, our main goal is to keep improving our understanding of the relationship between the tool, the soil and operating conditions,” explains Francesca Raneri, Sales & Marketing Director at Zappettificio Muzzi. “It’s a circular process: data collected in the field helps farmers today, and at the same time gives us the knowledge to design tomorrow’s tools.” “After all, this is the innovation model we believe in,” Raneri adds. “We start from our own experience, identify a concrete problem and draw on expertise developed in other industries to find a new solution.”

This year the Technical Innovations Contest, promoted by FederUnacoma, selected 19 technologies as “Technical Innovation” and 35, including VigilaSense, as “Technical Evolution.” All of them will be on display in the Quadriportico area of the Bologna Exhibition Centre throughout EIMA International.

About Zappettificio Muzzi

For Zappettificio Muzzi, the award comes in a year that is already a milestone: in 2026 the cooperative turns 45. It started as a small blacksmith’s workshop after the Second World War and became a cooperative in 1981. Today its catalogue includes more than four thousand models, and it exports 75 percent of its output to over forty-five countries. That long journey has taken the company far, while it has stayed rooted in Castel Guelfo di Bologna, where it all began.

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