Although satellite remote sensing images can make all surface objects visible, it still requires a lot of time and manpower to be truly applied to the industry In order to effectively solve the problems that customers face in digesting huge amounts of image data and eliminate technical obstacles for cross-domain users to process satellite remote sensing images, ThinkTron has developed an "AI Analysis Cloud Service Platform for Remote Sensing Big Data" as a new beginning for cross-domain AI applications for spatial information In recent years, in response to the impact of industrial globalization, Taiwan's agriculture has continued to transition towards technology-based and higher quality, improving the yield and quality of crops by solving problems, such as microclimate impacts and pest and disease control The demand of agriculture on images has expanded endlessly to accurately grasp the growing environment of crops In the early years when UAVs unmanned aerial vehicles were not yet popular, manual field surveys were the most basic but most labor-intensive work With the emergence of UAV drones, aerial photography operations might not be difficult, but the range that can be photographed is limited Furthermore, surveying expertise is required to accurately capture spatial information At this time, the use of satellite remote sensing data may break away from the past imagination of using image data Taiwan Space Agency TASA ODC data warehouse services In the past ten years, with the breakthrough of modern satellite remote sensing application technology, Digital Earth has become a new trend in global data collection Countries have developed data cube image storage technology, and the development of smart agriculture has become one of the largest image users Determining planting distribution is the first step in understanding crop yields Free satellite remote sensing images, powerful data warehousing support, and the team's robust image recognition technology are important supports for accelerating agricultural transformation Using satellite remote sensing image data can accelerate the development of smart agriculture However, in the past, it was difficult to extract large-area crop distribution through satellite remote sensing images, not to mention the cost If you wanted to use free information, you had to visit all websites of international space agencies, look through the wide variety of satellite specifications, and carefully evaluate the sensor specifications, image resolution, and revisit cycle After finding suitable images, you had to look at them one by one to filter the ones you need Next is downloading dozens of images that are often several hundreds of Megabytes MB each, which might exceed the capacity of your computer Also, after overcoming image access and preparing data, you must then start to confirm the downloaded image products and which bands you want, because the image you see is not just an image file jpg or png, but rather complex multi-spectral information, attribute fields and coordinate information It takes a lot of effort just to confirm the correct information Facing GIS software packages with complex functions is the start of another trouble The complex image pre-processing process and the inflexible machine learning package greatly reduce the efficiency of analyzing data After finally getting the results of crop identification, you might find that the best time for using map information may have already passed The above-mentioned complex and time-consuming satellite image processing problems are precisely the pain points of the market ThinkTron expanded from traditional machine learning to modern deep learning applications, and developed an "AI Analysis Cloud Service Platform for Remote Sensing Big Data" under the GeoAI framework, breaking through the constraints of details in the spatial information for customers Differences between the process before and after introducing the AI analysis cloud service platform ThinkTron said that Taiwan's ODC Open Data Cube system has been completed and began providing services after years of efforts from the Taiwan Space Agency TASA, formally becoming aligned with international trends The powerful warehousing technology allows users to easily capture and use image data of a specific time and spatial range according to their needs The warehouse stores multiple satellite image resources from international space agencies, including the ESA's Sentinel-1 one image every 6 days, Sentinel-2 one image every 6 days, USGS's Landsat-7 one image every 16 days, Landsat-8 one image every 16 days, and the domestic Formosat-2 one image every day and Formosat-5 one image every 2 days ThinkTron develops satellite image recognition tools based on Python Breaking free from the limitations of GIS Geographic Information System software packages, ThinkTron integrated GDAL Geospatial Data Abstraction Library based on Python, and considered computing efficiency and parallel processing when developing all tools required for satellite image processing and image recognition modeling, including coordinate system and data format conversion, grid and vector data interaction, and data intra-difference and normalization All of the tools are designed with AI applications in mind, and some commonly used tools are packaged into an open source package under the name TronGisPy to benefit the technical community ThinkTron utilized the team's understanding of satellite remote sensing images and the collected tagged data crop distribution maps to preset the image recognition modeling process, the required training data specifications, and dataset definitions This is imported into the machine learning LightGBM or deep learning CNN framework that was completed in advance, and the entire training process to be performed in the Web GIS interface, providing users with partial flexibility to freely filter images, confirm spatial and temporal ranges, select models, and adjust hyperparameters In addition to the operation of training models, it also provides historical models to output identification results, and finally displays the identification results of crop distribution on the Web GIS map In fact, agriculture is not the only industry that needs satellite remote sensing applications AI applications of spatial information have also appeared in various fields as companies in different industries aim to enhance their global competitiveness For example, surveying and mapping companies that have a large amount of map data can use the AI analysis cloud service platform to store map data while also accelerating the efficiency of digital mapping Under the severe global climate change and the risk of strong earthquakes, there is a wide variety industrial insurance, agricultural insurance, financial insurance, or disaster insurance are all inseparable from spatial information The use of remote sensing image recognition to understand insurance targets has long been an international trend AI Analysis Cloud Service Architecture for Remote Sensing Big Data

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」

An AI smart lawn mowing robot, resembling a vacuum robot, shuttles back and forth on the 30-hectare golf course lawn for weeding This robot, independently developed and designed by Taiwanese, is equipped with the world's first electronic fencing positioning technology which utilizes high-precision GPS integrated with cloud AI computation to determine the most efficient mowing paths, targeting the lucrative blue ocean market of golf courses This AI lawn mowing robot was developed by USRROBOT, a Taiwanese startup established in 2019 Chao-Cheng Chen, the president of USRROBOT, once served as the executive vice president of one of the top five ODM tech companies in Taiwan, and specializes in software and hardware integration When he served as the chairman of the Service Robot Alliance, he knew that the service robot industry was bound grow rapidly due to declining birth rates and the growingly severe labor shortage New demand - The horticulture market is large and the has rigid demand "To develop the core technology of service robots, we must find rigid demand Looking at European and American countries, there is a shortage of labor, but demand for horticulture has increased, and there has been a long-term shortage of 7-10 of horticultural workers" Under this strong "rigid demand," Chao-Cheng Chen established USRROBOT, and the company's first product is the AI lawn mowing robot In terms of overseas markets, the United States is the world's largest horticulture market, accounting for 30-40 of the global output value It is estimated that there are about 1 million horticulture workers, but they have been experiencing a labor shortage of 7-10 in recent years and have not been able to improve the situation The main reasons for labor shortage are Aging population and gardening is a labor-intensive job, so young people don't want to do it Unlike in Taiwan, European and American countries attach great importance to lawn maintenance and have expressly stipulated in the law that heavy fines will be imposed for failing to mow the lawn Therefore, the AI lawn mowing robot has considerable market development potential The introduction of AI multi-device collaborative mowing sensor technology is expected to reduce the burden of staff maintaining the golf course The AI lawn mowing robot developed by USRROBOT is currently in its second generation Domestic universities and well-known art museums are using the latest model M1, and it is also being used by some world-renowned high-tech companies and well-known universities in the United States The company is currently involved in negotiations for subsequent business cooperation USRROBOT stated that the professional RTK system currently used can reduce the original GPS positioning error from tens of meters to about 2 centimeters, allowing the robot to move accurately outdoors After setting the boundaries, it can be easily operated using the app New application - Implementation in golf courses solves the problem of labor aging and shortage Chao-Cheng Chen further explained that the National Land Surveying and Mapping Center is a RTK service provider RTK provides the error reference map of the positioning point USRROBOT can access the positioning error value of a specific position through 4G Internet access The AI algorithm of USRROBOT reduces the general 10-20 m error of GPS to 2 cm After positioning, USRROBOT then uses six-axis accelerator positioning, gyroscopes, and wheel differential sensing devices for software and hardware integration Only by matching the wheel's movement pattern and the terrain can accurate mowing path planning be achieved The AI lawn mowing robot, which is 62 cm wide, 84 cm long, 46 cm high, and weighs only 25 kg, can set the mowing boundaries in the cloud It can avoid pools and sand pits through settings, using AI algorithms to automatically calculate the optimal path It is able to mow approximately 150 ping of grass in one hour The battery can be used continuously for more than 6 hours The battery life is currently the highest in the world In addition to general gardening companies, with the assistance of the AI project team of the Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs, USRROBOT's AI lawn mowing robot has been applied to golf course lawn mowing A well-known golf course located in Taiping District, Taichung City currently has a staff of 5 people who are responsible for the lawn, planting maintenance, and other landscape maintenance of the entire 30-hectare course However, the average age of staff is as high as 55 years old, and the golf course has been unable to recruit new staff members for a long time In view of the aging staff and the shortage of manpower, the golf course hopes to mitigate the impact with AI technology, and is therefore using AI multi-device collaborative mowing sensor technology, in hopes of reducing the burden of staff maintaining the golf course New challenges - Expert systems are needed to overcome difficulties with different grass species "This AI lawn mowing robot has low noise, low pollution, low labor costs, and is waterproof and anti-theft In the lawn mowing process, it can identify and avoid obstacles through ultrasonic sensors while maintaining mowing quality, maintaining aesthetic and consistent grass length" Chao-Cheng Chen went on to say that the most important part about golf courses is that the grass pattern should be beautiful and free from diseases and pests Based on the site survey, golf courses are mainly divided into three major areas green, fairway and rough There is no problem using the current mowing robot to mow the rough area, and it can overcome slopes within 20 degreesThe short grass in the fairway area may only be two centimeters long, and the grass types are also different, so the cutterhead design needs to be modifiedAs for the grass in the green area, the grass must be mowed close to the ground and maintained in a consistent direction because it affects the putting speed Many factors will affect the green index, and this part requires more research and testing The AI lawn mowing robot can identify and avoid obstacles through ultrasonic sensors while maintaining mowing quality The AI smart lawn mowing robot has a built-in camera that can be used to detect the health condition of the lawn Chao-Cheng Chen said that in the future, an expert system will also be introduced for early determination of whether there are diseases, pests in the lawn or whether there is sufficient moisture, and provide lawn health data analysis to customers, so that they can take preventive and response measures sooner to reduce disaster losses Chao-Cheng Chen, who is also a good golfer himself, said that golf has developed well in Taiwan However, due to weather factors, such as rainy and humid climate and typhoons, Taiwan's golf courses have harder soil and more potholes compared with top tier golf courses overseas If AI lawn mowing robots are to be widely introduced into golf courses, there are still many difficulties that must be overcome However, Taiwan's difficult terrain creates a good testing ground Once Taiwan can overcome the many problems and successfully introduce the robot, it will be able to expand to overseas markets and seize new market opportunities in a blue ocean Chao-Cheng Chen, President of USRROBOT nbsp