Agriculture and Farming | Agriculture and Farming | Applications

Overview

Agriculture and farming workplaces involve much dangerous work and heavy labor which typically relies on human hands due to the difficulty of mechanization. A shrinking agriculture labor force has meant that each worker is required to cover a wider area than ever before. However, many of these tasks require special skills that only experts have, such as operating tractors, which hinders the increase in personnel. This is also the case in livestock-raising facilities.

In response to this, efforts are currently underway to solve problems in agriculture and livestock and improve work efficiency by utilizing cutting-edge technologies such as robots, AI, and IoT. Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation (SSS)'s various image sensors and OLED Microdisplays play an important role as key devices for such systems.

Applications

Sorting fruit and vegetables

Observation of agricultural lands

Automatic driving for agricultural machinery

Glasses for fertilizer spraying/scattering drone piloting

Support for harvesting in farming and agriculture

Livestock monitoring

Head mounted display for ultrasonography in livestock-raising facilities

Sorting fruit and vegetables

The sorting work performed before shipping fruit and vegetables is laborious but it is also an area in which mechanization can dramatically improve efficiency. Since Short Wavelength Infra-Red (SWIR) image sensors can detect the moisture contained in a substance, they visualize not only the size and shape of fruit and vegetables but also scratches and moisture accumulated near the epidermis that are invisible to the naked eye.

Observation of agricultural lands

In current agricultural practices, cameras are used to take pictures of farmland from the sky. By accurately grasping the growing status of crops, it is possible to perform limited topdressing and yield prediction based on this data. However, it is not easy to judge the growth status of crops only from the color information of the captured images. By utilizing SWIR image sensors that can detect the presence of water, it is possible to visualize the growth situation and distribution of crops, greatly contributing to appropriate judgements and better decision making.

Multispectral image sensors can create spectral images of crops, allowing more efficient monitoring of growth and dispersion and making it easier to read the best times for watering and fertilization.

Automatic driving for agricultural machinery

In order to address the problem of labor shortages, there is an increasing demand for autonomous agricultural machinery. In the case of cars, autonomous driving relies on white lines and road signs, but in the case of farmland, there are few reliable landmarks, so it is essential to collect a variety of information and be aware of the environment. Multispectral image sensors are suitable for capturing differences in the reflective characteristics of different materials, making it easier to effectively identify surrounding environments such as plants, soil, and puddles. This improves the accuracy of route selection in autonomous driving and contributes to the realization of automatic driving for agricultural machinery.

Glasses for fertilizer spraying/scattering drone piloting

Drones are increasingly being used to spray or scatter fertilizer in fields, etc. The advantage of using drones is that fertilizer can be sprayed or scattered uniformly and quickly over a wide area. Glasses (head mounted display) capable of checking the drone field of view must be lightweight, and offer high image quality, and the adoption of OLED Microdisplay has been increasing.

Glasses for fertilizer spraying/scattering drone piloting2

Support for harvesting in farming and agriculture

Time of Flight (ToF) image sensors are three-dimensional image sensors that can precisely detect the depth information which is difficult to handle with red, green, blue (RGB) sensors. They are utilized as key devices in robots that milk dairy cows and pick or harvest fruit, tasks which have traditionally relied on manual labor.

These sensors are also suitable for monitoring the body shape and walking style of livestock, the amount of feed consumed, and more. They also contribute to quality control and productivity improvement. In the agricultural sector, these sensors can assist the automatic operation of agricultural equipment by three-dimensional monitoring.

Multispectral image sensors can sense both visible and non-visible light simultaneously, so they can capture appearance information and maturity information simultaneously, making it easier to judge the optimal harvesting time.

Livestock monitoring

Despite the increasing problems associated with rising populations and food shortages, the workforce is decreasing every year. In response, there has been a significant shift toward smart farming, using IoT to address these issues.

Combining the SSS SPRESENSE™ board computer for IoT with Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning technology supports multiple satellites signals while running with continuous low-power consumption. This can be enhanced with AI technology to monitor livestock more precisely, making it possible for farmers to raise their animals more safely and efficiently.

In addition to being compact, lightweight, and durable, trackers fitted to livestock must be capable of accurate location positioning and have long battery life. Using the SSS GNSS receiver large-scale integrations (LSIs) can satisfy location tracking requirements. Monitoring the movement of livestock using trackers will help prevent lost animals and assist with locating them when missing. Moreover, by recording and analyzing livestock behavior, trackers can be used for pastureland management.

Head mounted display for ultrasonography in livestock-raising facilities

The usefulness of head mounted displays equipped with OLED Microdisplays for ultrasonography work to check the health of livestock is gaining much attention. The reason for this is that projecting diagnostic images onto a head mounted display frees the user’s hands for other tasks. Head mounted displays are useful for ultrasonography work in order to check the health of livestock.

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