SensOlive brings software variability and digital twins to one of today’s most urgent agricultural challenges: efficient irrigation in olive groves.
During SISTEDES 2026, held in Alicante from 16 to 18 June, our colleague José Manuel Sánchez Ruiz presented the work titled “Proyecto – SENSOLIVE: Variability Management and Digital Twins in Deficit Irrigation of Olive Groves”. The conference brought together the Spanish software engineering community and included JISBD, JCIS and PROLE as its main scientific tracks.
The article was authored by José Manuel Sánchez Ruiz, Francisco Sebastián Benítez Ruiz Díaz, Noelia López Durán, Miguel Ángel Olivero González, Francisco José Domínguez Mayo, Marta Sánchez Piñero and David Benavides Cuevas.
Managing variability in precision irrigation
The SensOlive project addresses a key problem in modern agriculture: how to support deficit irrigation strategies in olive groves while taking into account the variability of crops, environmental conditions, sensors and decision-making scenarios.
This line of work connects directly with DiversoLab’s research on software variability, artificial intelligence and digital twins. In previous work, the SensOlive team has explored how digital twins can help extend the benefits of physical sensing infrastructure, such as dendrometers, by providing a richer view of the current state of olive trees under water-stress conditions.
From software engineering to sustainable agriculture
José Manuel’s presentation showed how software engineering techniques can contribute to the design of intelligent systems for agriculture. By combining variability management and digital twins, SensOlive aims to support more informed irrigation decisions and make advanced monitoring technologies more accessible.
For DiversoLab, this contribution reinforces an important research direction: applying rigorous software engineering methods to real-world domains where sustainability, efficiency and adaptability are critical.