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【2021 Application Example】 Fongyu Uses AI Knowledge-based Fish Farming to Effectively Increase Aquatic Production by 10%

Fisheries is an important industry in an island economy. However, the fish farming industry has faced severe challenges in recent years, including climate change, labor shortage, and rising costs. In particular, nearly 110,000 workers in agriculture will retire due to old age over the next 10 years. For this reason, the need for aquaculture to move towards smart farming is becoming increasingly urgent.

Founded in 2014, Fongyu Corp. Ltd. has developed a unique eco-friendly farming model based on its own fish farming. It uses AI knowledge-based fish farming to effectively increase aquatic product production by 10%, and reduced labor cost by 15%.

The word "Fongyu" has a profound meaning. "Fong" represents good mountains and "Yu" represents good water, and is the hope that companies will allow Taiwan to always have good mountains and good water.It is also a homophone for "having a full figure," expressing the hope that products will give consumers a full and healthy body and mind. The founder of the company, Liu Chien-Shen, has been through the difficult entrepreneurial journey of becoming an apprentice in fish farming, raising funds, renting fish farms, establishing a fish farming company, building a brand, and expanding sales.

Labor shortage and aging workers are hidden worries in the fish farming industry

Currently, fish farms in Taiwan are still mainly traditional fish farms, and farming techniques are still passed down through word-of-mouth. In addition, the labor shortage and average age of workers exceeding 60 years old has made it impossible to effectively stably improve productivity and yield. This farming method makes it difficult to prevent and control diseases, and greatly increases the possibility of excessive use of drugs, environmental pollution, and water quality and ecological damage, creating a vicious cycle that lowers the quality of fish farming.

In addition, 65.1% of workers in Taiwan's fish farming industry are inadequately skilled. With limited support from IoT sensors, traditional fish farmers still mainly rely on their own experience and knowledge for water quality management, feeding, and disease detection. Fish farming management relies heavily on the ability of individual fishermen. Once experienced workers retire, the industry will not only face the issue of succession, but also the difficult of stably supplying a certain amount of harvest that meets quality standards. This may cause a dilemma for the entire industry from fish farming to sales.

In order to improve the pain point of inability to pass on experience in fish farming, and at the same time create a "digital" foundation for fish farming, the top priority must be to collect farming behavior data and develop AI services as an important starting point.

Fishery digital twin technology helps fishermen transition to smart farming

With the assistance of the Institute for Information Technology (III), Fongyu implemented the "fishery digital twin" technology to dynamically adjust the farming schedule. In other words, the fish farming schedule is adjusted according to the species, habits, and variables of the fish. The use of AI in fish farming not only effectively increase aquatic production by 10%, but also reduced labor cost by 15%.

In terms of specific methods, we first digitalized the fish ponds, feed, and decision-making behavior for each species, such as sea bass and Taiwan tilapia, and recorded the seasonal temperature changes from releasing seedlings to harvesting, all of which were digitalized, gradually recording the experience and methods of experienced workers into a rich database. Based on the recorded data, we analyzed the compound variables to find the best farming behavior and generate a dynamic farming schedule.

Recording each pond's farming master's data experience.

▲ The records for each pool provide data on workers' experience.

However, fish farming behavior generally relies on rules of thumb. Even experienced fish farmers cannot ensure that they will find the best solution. Therefore, new methods are proposed to solve this issue: That is, "to determine the best fish farming behavior by predicting the interaction with water quality and past data on feeding, and evaluating fish farming behavior based on water quality and fish farming," and provide fishermen with the most intuitive recommendations through daily schedules. To continue optimizing the dynamic fish farming calendar on a rolling basis, iterations of the model will be developed through the three-step cycle:

(1) Input the current fish farming calendar into the model;

(2) The model predicts the future environment;

(3) Shortcomings of the fish farming calendar are corrected based on the future environment to obtain a new version of the fish farming calendar.

In the process, the experience of aquaculture experts is used to establish the causal relationship between fish farming behavior and the environment. The establishment of a dynamic fish farming process and technology-based fish farming recommendation services provide a traceable and detailed fish farming process. It is one of the few technologies that can digitalize fish farming. Fishermen can quickly and easily record their daily behaviors to build knowledge without taking up too much time, but in the long run it can reduce labor cost by 15% and increase output and revenue by an average of 10%.

Smart fish farming has achieved outstanding results, reducing labor cost by 15% and increasing output by 10%

At the same time, the fish farming calendar can also be extended to different aquatic species, such as white shrimp, milkfish, clams, and Taiwan tilapia, to produce fish farming schedules for ponds with different specifications, and the harvested aquatic species can be traced according to different specifications, establishing vertically integrated services for safe food products. Fongyu's main products are divided into two categories. One is aquaculture modules, including fry, feed, materials and probiotics, production planning and processes, and monitoring, which can be sold separately or exported as modules.

Summit Fisheries' high-quality marine products consistently win awards. (Image: Summit Fisheries official website)

▲The high-quality aquatic products produced by Fongyu have repeatedly won awards. (Figure: Fongyu’s official website)

The other category is high-quality aquatic products, including seabass fillets, seabass balls, oil-free seabass balls, seabass dumplings, and seabass soup. The products have won various awards, including the top ten souvenirs in Pingtung in 2017, "Barramundi Fillet" won the 2017 Eatender of the Council of Agriculture (COA), "Oil-Free Barramundi Fillet" won the 2018 Eatender Gold Food Award of the COA, and "Dumplings of Barramundi" and "Barramundi Broth" won the 2019 Eatender of the COA. The consecutive awards represent that the "quality" of Fongyu’s aquatic products can be seen and eaten with peace of mind.

In addition, Fongyu has exclusive fingerlings that meet international needs, such as: Pure seawater cultured tilapia fingerlings and seawater Taiwan tilapia fingerlings from selective breeding (FY-01) are items that aquaculture companies in many countries are looking forward to. The company also has aquaculture modules, disease monitoring tools, and feeding materials designed in accordance with the environment, in order to provide customers with more stable income.

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【解決方案】佐翼科技無人機導入高爾夫球場域 可節省一半人力
Droxo Tech Applies Drones in Golf Courses to Reduce Manpower by Half

For most golf courses, the operations and management is a headache "Golf courses are selling turf and need to be properly taken care of," a golf course manager bluntly pointed out Facing the market pain points of labor shortage, aging population and high cost, the use of AI drones for pesticide spraying and pest control will reduce labor costs by more than half and greatly improve the overall operational efficiency At noon in early summer, an AI drone is slowly taking off at the Taipei Golf Club in Taoyuan Its main task is to test AI drone fertilizing and pesticide spraying on the golf course In fact, drones of Droxo Tech, the company performing this task, are widely used for fertilization, pesticide spraying, and pest and disease control for rice, bananas, and tea trees For golf courses with turfs that often cover tens to hundreds of hectares, AI drones are needed to assist in turf maintenance Data collection, development of pesticide spraying AI models, and multispectral image analysis and testing will be carried out in the current stage In the future, large-scale technology implementation and verification will be carried out to set an example for applying drones to golf courses Using AI drones to fertilize and spray pesticides can reduce the manpower required by half The traditional way of maintaining the turf in golf courses is to carry spray buckets or drive spraying vehicles to spray areas one by one "Domestic golf courses began to plant ultra-dwarf Bermuda grass in 2001 This grass species prefers a cool climate and is not suitable for Taiwan's hot and humid weather" Droxo Techrsquos CEO further pointed out that to prevent turf from pests and diseases, pesticide spraying is necessary For an 18-hole golf course, it is equivalent to spraying pesticides once a week, and the T-ground and fairways are sprayed every two months For golf courses, spraying pesticides is time-consuming and labor-intensive It is important to note that large-scale spraying will increase the risk of personnel poisoning and increase the amount of pesticide used Benefits of applying agricultural drones to golf courses According to Droxo Techrsquos research, golf course pests include Spodoptera litura, which comes out at night to look for food, so pesticide spraying must be carried out in the evening According to the traditional method, pesticide spraying requires two vehicles and three personnel for a total of 45 hours If AI drones are used for fertilizing and pesticide spraying, it only takes one operator to spray 08 hectares of land in 20 minutes, saving about two-thirds of the manpower and reducing operating costs by about 30 Using AI drones to fertilize and spray pesticides on golf courses can reduce the manpower required by half In addition to the significant benefits of using agricultural drones for golf course turf maintenance, Droxo Tech also specially introduced AI multispectral image recognition for NDVI Normalized Difference Vegetation Index analysis "The so-called multispectral is to direct light with different wavelengths on the turf, and the reflected images are collected for analysis" Droxo Tech CEO Liu continued to explain that each plant absorbs light with different wavelengths, so multispectral imaging can determine the growth status of grass species At the same time, combined with AI image recognition, the distribution of pests and diseases can be accurately detected, and the amount of pesticide used is determined on this basis Cross-domain collaboration to build a multi-source turf image databasenbsp Using AI multispectral image recognition technology, Droxo Tech will collect visible light, multispectral, thermal images, and hyperspectral images to establish a multi-source turf image database to fully understand the growth cycle of Bermuda grass Droxo Tech has accumulated rich experience in agricultural AI drone pesticide spraying , but there are still many problems that need to be overcome to implement AI solutions in golf courses For example, it is necessary to establish a new pesticide spraying model and test flight methods, especially the application of multispectral image recognition PoC is not difficult, but actual implementation requires more test evidence, repeated inferences, and collaboration with plant experts This part must rely on the cross-domain integration of legal entities such as the Institute for Information Technology III, gathering more fields for verification, and creating a paradigm before it can be more widely adopted by golf courses There are not many international cases on the application of AI drones in golf courses During the verification process, it is not yet known whether it can be quickly copied to the next golf course However, Droxo Tech CEO Liu believes that through cross-domain collaboration, clearly defining the problems and listing them one by one, supply and demand parties can reach a consensus, propose solutions to each problem, and seek cooperation with internal and external resources Only then will we be able to gradually achieve the goal of making golf courses smarter and smoothly assist the industry with transformation Zuoyi Technology's CEO, Liu Junlin 「Translated content is generated by ChatGPT and is for reference only Translation date:2024-05-19」

這是一張圖片。 This is a picture.
Realizing the dream of unmanned stores, Magpie Life is building the future of the smartphone industry

"The DNA of Magpie Life is not limited to vending machines We believe that vending machines combine technology, access, and humanities to bring us exciting results" This is a sentence on the official website of Magpie Life Let the vending machines bring To live a pleasant life and build a considerate, technological and sustainable future for the smartphone industry is also the original intention of Magpie Life Founded in 2018, Magpie Life launched Taiwan’s first private-brand mobile payment scan code sensor 4 months after its establishment, completing the consumption experience through screen touch The Magpie U1 smart vending machine manages the POS system and gathers data in the background, allowing consumers to synchronize with the world's new retail pace and experience a new retail consumption experience of purchasing convenience, checkout security, visual entertainment, and improved logistics replenishment efficiency Traditional vending machines lack information visibility and AI technology assists in information transparencyThis time, the Magpie smart vending machine is also equipped with AI technology to provide adjustable shelf space , a vending machine equipped with an industrial computer and a large-size touch display screen to achieve the purpose of a store-less store Magpie Life stated that the biggest problem with traditional vending machines is the lack of information visibility To check inventory, replenishment personnel must physically inspect each machine, which is time-consuming and costly When a machine breaks down, it will generally be unable to operate for a long time Most failures go unreported and are not discovered until the next restocking crew arrives to replenish supplies Then you have to wait for a service technician to be scheduled, which can take weeks Traditional vending machines lack real-time interactivity When consumers encounter problems after inserting coins, manufacturers cannot handle them immediately In addition, traditional vending machines are less flexible and cannot adapt to changes in consumer preferences Traditional vending machines have shortcomings such as limited change shopping, single payment tools, limited number of products, and few choices Affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, consumption habits have shifted to contactless methods, causing the unmanned store market to heat up Generally, vending machines can only place relatively simple products such as drinks, food, etc The properties available for sale are limited The patented vending machine developed by Magpie can adjust the shelf space and is equipped with a lifting cargo elevator, which is suitable for various types of goods In addition, the machine is equipped with an industrial computer and a large-size touch display screen, which can meet the needs of advertising support at the same time It is expected to move towards a storeless store According to Magpie Life Observation, the consumer market trend in the past two years is that consumers demand convenient life, food consumption patterns value dining experiencesimple and fast, and are equipped with mobile phone-connected ordering models, and hot drinks and Fresh food delivery is the focus of two major trends The location, items sold, consumption methods and multiple payment methods are the focus of market growth for smart vending machines In terms of convenience, Taiwanese consumers still prefer to purchase vending machine food near stations, airports, schools, and businesses in business districts Various payment methods are also gaining more support from consumers, indicating that in the future, automatic Vending machines can be developed in two directions diversified items and diversified payment methods AI sales forecast technology integrates back-end management to achieve precise marketing purposesDue to the wide variety of products, it is difficult to know the performance of products under different factors such as season, market conditions , promotional activities, etc, it is easy to cause out-of-stock or over-inventory situations Magpie Life has specially developed "AI sales forecasting technology" and integrated it into the back-end management system, hoping to lock in customer purchasing preferences and intentions through data analysis In order to achieve the purpose of precise marketing, make accurate business decisions and effectively allocate limited resources The introduction of AI systems can achieve the three major goals of precise marketing, inventory management and supply chain management This system is a replenishment decision-making aid designed specifically for supply chain managers It uses AI to predict future sales demand, helping companies effectively optimize production capacity, inventory and distribution strategies Its overall system architecture includes1 Data exploratory analysis function Provides automatic value filling, automatic coding and automatic feature screening functions for missing values in the data 2 Modeling function 1 Provides model training functions for two types of prediction problems regression Regression and time series Time Series Forecast nbsp2 Supports Auto ML automatic modeling, and the best model is recommended by the system Integrated models can also be established to improve model accuracy nbsp3 Supports multiple algorithm types Random Forest, XGBoost, GBM and other algorithms nbsp4 Supports a variety of time series models exponential smoothing, ARIMA, ARIMAX, intermittent demand, dynamic multiple regression and other models nbsp5 Supports a variety of model evaluation indicators R, MAE, MSE, RMSE, Deviance, AUC, Lift top 1, Misclassification and other indicators nbsp6 Supports automatic cutting of training data sets and Holdout verification data sets, and can manually adjust the ratio nbsp7 Supports automatic model ensemble learning Stacked Ensemble, balancing function learning Balancing Classes, and Early Stopping nbsp8 Supports the creation of multiple models at the same time The system will allocate resources according to modeling needs, so that modeling, prediction and other tasks have independent computing resources and do not affect each other In the overall server space With an upper limit, computing resources can be used efficiently nbsp9 It has in-memory computing function, which can use large-capacity and high-speed memory to perform calculations to avoid reading and writing a large number of files from the hard disk and improve computing performance 3 Data concatenation function Using API grafting and complete data concatenation automation, there is no need to manually import data, improving user experience 4 Chart analysis function Provides visual charts and basic statistical values for product sales AI data analysis solutions have two major advantages 1 Entrepreneurship machines can be rented and sold at low cost to open unmanned physical stores and cooperate with the chain retail industry Through smart machines, entrepreneurs can rent and sell them at a lower cost than the store rent Cost of running a retail business Two cooperation models, machine sales and leasing, are provided, and the choice is based on the evaluation of the industry 2 Various types of products are put on the shelves Products are sold anytime and anywhere 24 hours a day Up to 60 kinds of diversified products can be put on the shelves Large transparent windows enhance the visibility of products Regular replenishment and tracking of product sales status are available, and product types can be adjusted according to needs Recently, the line between the Internet and the physical world has blurred, the way customers interact has changed significantly, and consumer demand is changing and personalized The retail industry is facing unprecedented challenges and uncertainties, and mastering data has become key AI data analysis solutions can help the retail industry quickly activate large amounts of data, create seamless personalized experiences, optimize the operational value chain and improve efficiency, and strengthen the core competitiveness of enterprises 「Translated content is generated by ChatGPT and is for reference only Translation date:2024-05-19」

【導入案例】維繫遊艇王國美譽 嘉信遊艇導入國內第一套FRP複材超音波智慧檢測
Maintaining the reputation of the “Kingdom of Yachts” - Kha Shing Enterprise introduces the first domestic FRP ultrasonic smart inspection of composite materials

The Kaohsiung-based Kha Shing Enterprise Co, Ltd was established over 40 years ago, and is Taiwan's largest customized yacht company with customers all over America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, earning Taiwan the reputation of the "Kingdom of Yachts" Current FRP hull inspection still relies on traditional methods, such as visual inspection and knocking sounds, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive Kha Shing has applied PAUT array ultrasonic inspection to hull FRP composite materials for the first time, and combined it with AI to interpret ultrasound images, develop complete intelligent solutions, and create emerging markets for inspection companies Kha Shing Enterprise Co, Ltd was formerly Kha Shing Wood Industry Co, Ltd, and was a factory specializing in wood import in Kaohsiung Linhai Industrial Park when it was first established It began to design, manufacture, and sell yachts in 1977 After the second-generation successor of the company, President Kung Chun-Hao entered the company, he made a breakthrough in the previous manufacturing model that relied mainly on the skills of master craftsmen, introduced digital manufacturing to accelerate shipbuilding, and began to make larger yachts, ranking in the top 20 manufacturers worldwide among manufacturers of large yachts over 24 feet It also set a record of delivering 94 yachts within one year, earning Taiwan the reputation of "Kingdom of Yachts" Defect detection ensures yacht quality, using AI to replace humans to achieve higher efficiency Defect detection is very important to ensuring yacht quality At present, the yacht industry still uses very traditional defect detection methods The hull structure is usually made by hand lay-up or the vacuum infusion process, using visual inspection or knocking and the frequency of the sound to determine defects It requires time-consuming manual inspection If there are any defects, they must be reworked and repaired, and a gel coat subsequently sprayed The hull must be constructed in sections to facilitate inspection For large yachts over 24 meters long, construction in sections is very time-consuming and labor-intensive To shorten the time of the yacht manufacturing process, Kha Shing Enterprise will first carry out the gel coating process for the hull, and then perform the hand lay-on process The hull manufacturing process has two types of composite material test specimen structures In terms of 54-foot yacht hulls, the hull contains gel coat, core material, fiber and resin, and the total thickness is about 32cmplusmn01cm, which is twice the total thickness of FRP hull without core material of about 16cmplusmn01cm Defects such as incomplete impregnation of glass fiber or residual air bubbles between glass fiber and resin occasionally occur during the manufacturing process The types of defects include insufficient resin, voids, and delamination Once defects occur, the supply of hull materials will be insufficient and yacht delivery will be delayed Schematic diagram of types of FRP hull In order to solve this problem, Kha Shing Enterprise has engaged in technical cooperated with the metal materials industry and the AI technology industry, combining the ultrasonic inspection expertise of the metal materials industry with AI technologies developed by the AI technology industry in recent years to help solve issues of Kha Shing Enterprise with defect detection The method uses PAUT on the composite material structure of yachts, conducts FRP ultrasonic evaluation to determine the thickness of the yacht hull and material properties, and evaluates the ultrasonic probe frequency applicable to the hull structure based on professional ultrasonic experience After testing, a frequency of 5MHz and a probe width of 45mm can successfully find the location and size of defects in the simulated defect test specimen The three parties jointly found defect detection solutions from array ultrasonic evaluation, AI technology model development, and actual application in yachts The image inspected is an ultrasound image The image displays different colors based on the ultrasonic feedback signal An AI model that automatically identifies defective parts is established through the YOLO algorithm If the amount of abnormal data collected is insufficient for training, the CNN-based Autoencoder algorithm is used to collect normal image data for training and construct an AI model for abnormality detection The object detection YOLO model is trained by inputting image data marked as having defects, while the abnormality detection model is trained by inputting image data without defects Simulated defective specimen corresponding to PAUT results Defect detection by and AI system can shorten the construction period by 15 months and speed up determination by 50 After the development of this AI system is completed, it will be validated on actual 54-foot yachts of Kha Shing Enterprise, and can effectively resolve issues with defects The application of AI technology in ultrasonic inspection for intelligent determination is expected to accelerate determination by approximately 50, and will also shortens the construction period by 15 months, effectively improving the speed and quality of the yacht manufacturing process As Taiwan develops larger and more refined yachts, it will create opportunities for industry optimization and transformation, as well as opportunities for the development of key technologies The application of an AI ultrasonic inspection solution for composite materials is the first of its kind in the yacht industry, and is expected to attract more yacht manufacturers with inspection needs The AI ultrasonic inspection solution for composite materials has three major competitive advantages 1 Professional inspection experience and digital database to facilitate process management and analysis 2 Automatic AI determination and identification quickly identifies defects and provides immediate feedback to process engineers 3 High-efficiency process inspection provides defect repair recommendations, reduces damage rate, and improves the strength and quality of composite materials The application of AI technology can optimize the yacht manufacturing process, reduce manual inspection, create added value through the application of AI in Taiwanrsquos yacht industry, increase international purchase orders, and allow Taiwan yachts to continue to enjoy a good reputation in the world Furthermore, this business model has also spread to fields of application related to composite materials, increasing cross-sector market usage It is estimated to contribute approximately NT14 to NT2 billion in economic benefits to Taiwan's equipment maintenance and non-destructive testing market