NEWS

—Showcasing Case Studies on the Use of IoT, Big Data, AI and CPS in Agriculture—

PS Solutions Corp. (“PS Solutions,” based in Minato-ku, Tokyo, led by Amane Kito and affiliated with SoftBank group) announces that e-kakashi, an agricultural IoT solution offered by PS Solutions, will participate as a platinum sponsor in the Science Robotics Meeting in Japan 2018—Challenges and Opportunities of Robotics—(host: Science/AAAS^*1) to be held on March 12, 2018. A sponsored lecture at the event will showcase e-kakashi case studies for solving a wide range of problems in the agricultural sector via advanced technologies such as IoT, big data, AI and CPS.

In recent years, the agricultural sector has faced many problems—in Japan these include fewer, aging farmers and a shortage of support workers—globally, food issues include environmental concerns and anti-famine measures. PS Solutions is committed to developing and providing services to help resolve the issues facing domestic farmers via e-kakashi. This solution makes agriculture smart by coordinating these two elements: a unique AI^*2 that incorporate the perspectives of agricultural information engineering, agriculture, plant science and cultivation; and CPS^*3 services for agriculture. In addition, PS Solutions has been working since 2017 with a Columbia-based international research institution for field testing outside Japan; this initiative leverages agricultural IoT solutions developed in Japan to resolve agricultural problems abroad.

PS Solutions’ e-kakashi is a platinum sponsor of the Science Robotics Meeting in Japan 2018, which will be held for the first time in Japan, a leading country in the field of robotics technology. The meeting brings together experts in the latest technologies from around the world. The e-kakashi initiative will be showcased to many people from various sectors, in addition to agriculture.

*1     American Association for the Advancement of Science. The publisher of Science, a scientific journal.

*2     The AI of e-kakashi is a hybrid of rule-based and model-based inference that is built on expertise and scientific evidence and is complemented with machine learning.

*3     Cyber Physical System (CPS) refers to a mechanism for analyzing open data/data collected by sensors and feeding the results back to physical actuators to control them.

During the event, e-kakashi equipment and services will be presented at PS Solutions’ exhibition booth and a sponsored lecture will feature a panel session conducted by Norio Yamaguchi, a Doctor of System Information Science and a fellow at PS Solutions, Takashi Togami, a Doctor of Philosophy and the director of the Agricultural Science Lab. of CPS Business Division, and Kyosuke Yamamoto, a Doctor of Agriculture and a senior chief engineer at the Agricultural Science Lab. of CPS Business Division.

Going forward, PS Solutions will contribute to developing agriculture not only in Japan but also worldwide through the visionary e-kakashi initiative, which leverages science and IT in order to help resolve issues facing agriculture both in Japan and abroad.

[Overview of the Science Robotics Meeting in Japan 2018]

The world’s first event to be held by the American journal Science, which was first published in 1880. This event will be held in Japan, a leading country in the field of robotics technology. It aims to “clarify the opportunities, challenges and issues related to this century’s key technology, robotics, in areas where science and industry intersect.”

- Event dates and times:

Monday, March 12           12:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m.

Tuesday, March 13          11:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.

Wednesday, March 14     11:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.

- Venue: Plaza Heisei - Tokyo International Exchange Center (Tokyo Academic Park, 2-2-1, Aomi, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan)

- Host: Science/AAAS

- URL: https://b-event.impress.co.jp/sciencemeeting/en/

[Overview of the Sponsored Lecture]

- Lecture title: Agricultural Usage of IoT, Big Data, AI, and CPS—Case Studies of an Electronic Scarecrow that Helps Make Crop-growing Decisions—

- Date and times: Tuesday, March 13 1:40 p.m.–2:20 p.m. (40 minutes)

- Venue: Plaza Heisei - Tokyo International Exchange Center S5-2

- Content of lecture:

“e-kakashi” is a system that uses IoT, big data, AI, CPS, and other technologies and was developed to help grow crops. The system is characterized by analyzing data from a cultivation perspective and navigating growing crops much like a car navigation system. This session will present solutions to problems that frequently occur in the agricultural sector, as well as advanced technologies considered necessary to the farming industry in the near future, and case studies where e-kakashi has been deployed.

・ Lecturers:

Norio Yamaguchi

Fellow, PS Solutions Corp.; Doctor of System Information Science

Norio engaged in applied research on artificial intelligence at the then KDD R&D Laboratories and subsequently in new service development consulting at HP Japan Inc. He established Disney Mobile as the MVNO Business Manager at SoftBank Mobile Corp. (current SoftBank Corp.) and started the agricultural IoT business e-kakashi at PS Solutions Corp. via its intrapreneurship system.

Takashi Togami

Director, Agricultural Science Lab., CPS Business Division, PS Solutions Corp.; Doctor of Philosophy

Takashi graduated from Charles Sturt University in New South Wales, Australia with a Bachelor of Applied Science degree and took a master’s course at the Graduate School of the University of Mie to engage in research in the field of agricultural ICT. In 2012, he completed a doctoral course at the same graduate school and received a Ph.D. of philosophy for his research on utilizing sensor networks and information on farmland. In December 2012, he received an Honorable mention from the CIGR subcommittee of Science Council of Japan. In January 2013, he joined SoftBank Mobile Corp. (current SoftBank Corp.) and led the technological development of this project.

Kyosuke Yamamoto

Senior Chief Engineer, Agricultural Science Lab., CPS Business Division, PS Solutions Corp.; Doctor of Agriculture

In 2015, Kyosuke received a doctorate of agriculture from the Graduate School of the University of Tokyo. He is a specialist in applying information science and technology, including image analysis, machine learning and data mining, in the field of agriculture. He is currently in charge of research and development for e-kakashi.

■ About e-kakashi

e-kakashi is an agricultural IoT solution that navigates farmland. It collects environmental information from the fields, including temperature, humidity, the amount of solar radiation, the temperature and water content in the soil, CO₂ and EC*, as well as growth information. The collected data is analyzed by a hybrid AI, based on plant science, which helps identify important growth and inhibiting factors at each stage. The e-kakashi system helps farmers navigate to an optimal growth environment by providing information such as what risks exist now and how they should be handled.

Knowledge on farming can be recorded as “ek recipes” and shared with multiple users. In this way,
e-kakashi helps make farming, instruction and agriculture more accurate and efficient.

* EC is an abbreviation for electric conductivity, which in the field of agriculture is used for measuring the amount of fertilizer in the soil.

■ PS Solutions Corp. Profile

- Location:                            4F, Shiodome City Center, 1-5-2 Higashi-Shimbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan

- Chairman & CEO:               Amane Kito

- Capital:                              100 million yen (fully funded by SoftBank Corp.)

- URL:                                  https://en.pssol.co.jp/

*       SoftBank, SoftBank's equivalent in Japanese and the SoftBank logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of SoftBank Group Corp. in Japan and other countries.

*       PS Solutions, e-kakashi and the e-kakashi logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of PS Solutions Corp.

*       Names of any other product, company or organization are trademarks or registered trademarks of the relevant companies.