Toward Smart Tomato Greenhouse

The 6th Tomato-Harvesting-Robot Competition and Regulation Changes Aiming at Practical Application

Abstract

Agriculture is one of the most important primary industries, however the agricultural workforce in Japan has been decreasing due to the aging, shortage of successors and their heavy work. Smart agriculture and farms, which aim to automate farm work, have been attracting attention for the future sustainable society. We have been organizing the Tomato-Harvesting-Robot Competitions since 2014 to introduce robotic technology and AI into agriculture and promote agricultural technology. The competition consists of a Junior League for young students and a Senior League for general competitors. In this paper, we report the results of the 6th Tomato-Harvesting-Robot Competition and the regulation changes toward practical applications.