Ultra-Precise Platform for Agricultural Research to precisely control the growing environment of crops, measure crops, and understand crop performance

Abstract

Crop production is becoming more unstable with accelerating climate change. Since this instability compromises both yield and quality, we need to evaluate them under various environments. We established a high-performance robotic environment emulator capable of reproducing different cropping environments and acquiring continuous crop data. Our Ultra-Precise Agricultural Research Platform (UPPAR) sends environmental and crop data via a high-speed network to the supercomputer “Shihou” to enable analysis by arti?cial intelligence. UPPAR is intended to be used as a research platform for developing new cultivars and cultivation methods, as it enables precise control and measurement of crops, and rapid and accurate understanding of crop performance. Since it can be used remotely by external institutions, a wide range of cooperative research can be realized, which will accelerate the development of new crop cultivars and cultivation methods required for crop production in the future.