Research in autonomous agriculture vehicles in Japan
Much research on automation in agriculture has been presented in recent years at the annual meetings of the Japanese Society of Agricultural Machinery (JSAM). This research has been performed in universities and government institutes, and by agricultural machinery manufacturers. Because of funding limitations, research in universities has concentrated on methodologies, such as navigation, sensing, and application of control theory. Development of a one dimensional image sensor, and application of neural networks and genetic algorithms, has taken place at Hokkaido University; vision guidance and fuzzy logic application at the University of Tokyo; an automatic follow-up vehicle has been developed at Kyoto University; and an automatic transport vehicle at Ehime University. At research institutes and manufacturers, with their greater financial freedom, more practical systems have been developed. A tilling robot and a driver-less air blast sprayer is being developed in the Bio-oriented Technology Research Advancement Institute (BRAIN); and an autonomous rice planter, a tillage robot and autonomous forage tractor in the research institute of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishery (MAFF). Kubota Co. Ltd has developed autonomous rice planting and husbandry vehicles. In Asian countries an autonomous speed sprayer is under study in Korea and an autonomous power sprayer in Taiwan, but little research is performed elsewhere in Asia.
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