:::

【2019 Application Example】 Smart agriculture and fisheries digital twin: A highly efficient and sustainable agriculture and fisheries upgrade solution. How did the AI technology called "digital twin" triple the output of aquaculture?

Relying on nine types of sensors to detect water quality, while monitoring the growth of the farmed species and fishermen's behavioral decisions, the artificial intelligence (AI) solution "Smart Agriculture and Fisheries Digital Twin" can significantly increase production by 300%. The “Happy Harvest” - style high-tech integrated solution allows novices to get started quickly. It significantly reduces the reliance of agriculture and fisheries on experience, and makes it more appealing for young people to return to their hometowns to work in agriculture and fisheries.

There was a time when Facebook games were just starting to become popular, and everyone could be called a farmer due to the popular game “Happy Harvest.” Office workers took out their mobile phones one by one during their lunch breaks and started living the life of a happy farmer life on their mobile phones. Some people were naughty, secretly went on Facebook during work hours to steal the harvest from their colleagues. The game was so therapeutic that some people actually went into the fields to become farmers during the holidays. If I said that "Happy Harvest" really exists, would you believe me? THE "Digital Twin" -"Smart Greenhouse" and "Smart Farm" solutions developed by the Innovative DigiTech-Enabled Applications & Service Institute (IDEAS). Institute for Information Technology (III) are "Happy Harvest" and "Happy Fish: Dream Aquarium" in real life.

Here, nine sensors based on IoT will continuously monitor the "facility factors" of the crop/aquaculture growth environment, such as water quality, and upload them to the cloud through the control box. The AI robot in the cloud will continue to simulate a digital twin in the system, receiving "facility factors" such as water temperature and dissolved oxygen, and continuously collecting "growth factors" for the growth status of crops/farmed species. A simulated "digital twin" of the fisherman is created in the cloud system, and the AI robot will also calculate appropriate "behavioral decisions" based on the successful strategies of past fishermen.

When the oxygen content is low and the water temperature exceeds the standard, AI will suggest you to make behavioral decisions, such as turning on the water wheel, turning on the aerator, or using medication. Fishermen use their own experience or knowledge to decide whether to follow the suggestion. Afterwards, the system will compare the results of the decision, and fishermen can also judge based on the results whether the decision made by a real person is better than the behavioral decision made by the “digital twin.”

In addition, the digital twin AI of smart agriculture operates in the background around the clock, silently recording and analyzing the corresponding "behavioral decisions" of fishermen in response to various "facility factors" and "growth factors" in smart farms. Decision-making", slowly establishing the best solution model for the farming strategies. Slowly, AI silently learns these "tacit knowledge" from fishermen like a little apprentice at their side, so that this knowledge will not be lost when the fishermen retire.

Moreover, this technology can not only be used to "farm fish," but also "farm vegetables." These optimized farming models can become a precious database. Even novices who have just entered the industry can skip the process of exploration and directly become a master.

The greatest challenges currently faced are: insufficient manpower, aging population, loss of experience, and high cost of new technologies

Taiwan is famous for its agricultural technologies and farming technologies. However, small farmers generally have a shortage of manpower and aging workers. Digital transformation is imperative. The cost of new technologies is too high for 80% of small farmers and fishermen. Since there are too many uncertainties in environmental factors, such as climate change, and water quality changes, they are all highly dependent on experience. Therefore, the most severe challenge comes from farmers and fishermen retiring before young farmers and fishermen can take over, and many years of experience are lost because they cannot be passed on.

Smart agriculture and fisheries digital twin allow continuous optimization without downtime

"Digital twin" is an emerging technology that combines AI and HI craftsman wisdom, and was rated by Gartner as one of the top ten key technologies for the future for three consecutive years. The Department of Industrial Technology, Ministry of Economic Affairs began to engage in R&D of digital twin in 2016. It believes that in addition to automation efficiency, industries also need to digitally preserve experience and skills to develop optimal human-machine collaboration technologies through AI and HI interactive learning. In the field of aquaculture, the "digital twin" of AIoT (Artificial Internet of Things) for "fishery and electricity symbiosis fish farms" digitalizes the tacit knowledge of fishermen. Using the analysis of "facility factors" constructed from different types of water quality data and “growth factors” such as fish and shrimp images and disease symptom images, as well as the "behavioral decisions" of fishermen, to train AI can produce optimized models for water quality management, aquatic product growth management, and aquatic disease management.
智慧養殖魚電共生魚塭示意圖▲The "digital twin" of AIoT for "fishery and electricity symbiosis fish farms" digitalizes the tacit knowledge of fishermen

These AI management models are combined to create a smart farming solution with high survival rate and high feed conversion rate. The entire farming process has digital monitoring data and quality that can be analyzed. Traceability can reach the initial stage of farming, greatly improving the quality, value, and output of aquatic products.

Despite promising prospects, there are still many challenges

The III IDEAS first become involved in “digital twin” due to a forward-looking technology project supported by the Department of Industrial Technology, Ministry of Economic Affairs in 2018. At that time, the Department of Industrial Technology believed that in addition to automation efficiency, industries also need to digitally preserve experience and skills to develop optimal human-machine collaboration technologies through AI and HI interactive learning.

Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan subsequently supported the application of "digital twin" in smart agriculture. "The application of digital twin technology in agriculture helps small farmers digitally accumulate experience, and improves their agricultural skills through the interaction of group experience and AI, resolving the greatest challenge of intelligent agriculture.” Intelligent agriculture digital twin technology is expected to increase production efficiency by 30% after commercialization and is quite promising.

Interview picture of Qiu Jingming, team leader of the Service Innovation Institute
▲Team leader Qiu Jingming: "The behavioral decisions made by powerful fishermen are three times better than those of ordinary fishermen in terms of results."

 

Digital Twin: Aqua-Solution

Digital Twin: Aqua-Solution

After working with technology-based aquaculture companies and gaining support from an industry project of the Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs, III IDEAS applied digital twin technology in the field of "smart fish farms." The field application team responsible for aquaculture pointed out: “In fish farms, fishermen often make different behavioral decisions when facing various environmental changes. The behavioral decisions made by experienced fishermen are three times better than ordinary fishermen in terms of results. For example, the survival rate of white shrimps is generally about 10%, but some fishermen can achieve a yield of up to 30%. This reduced production costs and tripled profits.
Digital twin technology can pass on the tacit knowledge of these experts and ultimately upgrade the entire industry."

The "digital twin" is composed of 9 sensors, fish images, and fishermen's behavioral decisions

9 sensors, constantly monitoring "facility factors" such as water quality

IDEAS uses nine sensors to monitor water quality,  including dissolved oxygen, water temperature, pH, salinity, turbidity, ammonia nitrogen, nitrate, chlorophyll a, and ORP (Oxidation-Reduction Potential), in order to obtain the environmental data of various farms. These factors are also known as “facility factors.”

In addition, fishermen will regularly take fish and shrimp out of the pond, or use submersible cameras to take pictures of farmed species underwater. This is used to determine the current size of the farmed species and its growth condition, which is also called "growth factor."

「設施因子」、「成長因子」再加上漁民在不同情境下會採取的「行為決策」,就可以在雲端伺服器裡面創造一個虛擬的「數位分身」。

▲"Facility factors," "growth factors" plus "behavioral decisions" made by fishermen in different situations can create a "digital twin" in the cloud server. (Source of diagram: Taiwan Salt Green Energy Co., Ltd. commissioned Sanyi Design Consultants Co., Ltd. to design) 

With these two factors plus "behavioral decisions" made by fishermen in different situations, a "digital twin" can be created in the cloud server.

In this game-like "digital twin," we can simulate as much as we want to find the best "behavioral decision" under different "facility factors" and obtain the optimal "growth factor.”

To put it in a way that is easier to understand, readers can try to imagine that we have a game called "Happy Fish Farm." The environmental parameters of the fish farm are all recorded from actual situations. We also record the behavioral decisions made by each "Happy Fish Farm" player under different environmental parameters and the final results. When the number of recorded data sets is sufficient, a digital twin of the fish farm can be obtained from machine learning, and then real-time data is simulated to obtain optimal combinations. This simulated world is the "digital twin" of "Happy Fish Farm."

How is the issue of sensors easily being damaged resolved?

However, there will always be challenges in the R&D process. For example, underwater sensors such as water temperature and dissolved oxygen sensors are often damaged due to algae growth. Underwater cameras that record the size of fish are often blurred and unrecognizable due to sediment or algae pollution on the bottom of the pond.

There are two solutions for overcoming the issue with sensor damage. One is to regularly scoop water out from the pond and pass it through the sensor for detection. The other is to make the sensor into a box and put it into the pond every day to detect the water quality.

As for the growth condition of fish and shrimp, fishermen only need to fish them out of the pond every day to take pictures and measure them. Low cost and effective.

Team leader Chiu said: "We are currently developing a 9-in-1 water quality detection box. After successful integration, we can prepare for mass production and start commercial operation by selling the box plus a monthly connection fee."

Team leader Chiu of IDEAS of the III said: "The issue with sensor damage is the cost. Even though it provides great benefits, it would be meaningless if fishermen are not willing to use it due to high cost. We are currently developing a 9-in-1 water quality detection box. After successful integration, we can prepare for mass production and start commercial operation by selling the box plus a monthly connection fee. We are now very close to completing the integration, and welcome companies to discuss cooperation.”

Difficulties in recording fishermen’s behavioral decisions

Another challenge comes from fishermen. Some fishermen will consciously record the water quality and environmental indicators they observe every day, and record their own operating strategies and results. However, not every fisherman will do this. This is why it is necessary to use GAN (generative adversarial network) technology, which is very important in AI.

GAN will generate possible strategies of fishermen based on past data, i.e., it "guesses" the fishermen's decisions to supplement the behavioral decisions that the fishermen do not input. If it is completed by fishermen afterwards, it will not affect the training data set.

After the award-winning technology is put into mass production, 300% production efficiency will no longer be out of reach

Current applications of "digital twin" technology worldwide are mostly in aerospace and manufacturing. Taiwan and the Netherlands are the first to engage in the R&D of digital twin in intelligent agriculture. Therefore,the "Intelligent Agriculture Digital Twin" winning the U.S. R&D 100 Awards is proof of Taiwan’s technological leadership. We are currently completing the integrated water quality monitoring box and total solution, and the product is expected to increase production efficiency by 300%.

In the future, "digital twin" technology will not only be used in agriculture and fisheries, but can also be extended to industries that originally relied on "tacit knowledge", such as tea making, fisheries, etc. Due to the digitization of the entire process, quality no longer relies on experience and the weather. This can upgrade farmers' technology for "AI monitoring" and "precision production." In addition to improving the productivity of traditional agriculture and fisheries, it also has a good chance of achieving sustainable operations, upgrading the entire industry, and making it more appealing for young people to return to their hometowns to work in agriculture and fisheries.

Reference materials: A key piece of the puzzle of smart manufacturing! Innovative sensing technology that accelerates the realization of "digital twin" - Digital era

Recommend Cases

【導入案例】化身大型AIOT科技遊樂場 海科館華麗轉身好吸睛
Transforming into a Large-Scale AIoT Technology Playground: The Spectacular Makeover of the National Museum of Marine Science & Technology

Taiwan is a maritime nation When you visit the Badozi Fishing Port or Tidal Park in Keelung, do you also explore the mysteries of the ocean world at the 48-hectare National Museum of Marine Science amp Technology To get more people closer to marine technology, Keelung's Marine Museum has introduced technological services, transforming the venue into a large technology playground that delights both children and adults, fully utilizing the 'learning through play' approach After a lengthy planning process, Northern Taiwan's largest marine science museum in Keelung opened in January 2014 The museum focuses on marine education and technology, boasting Taiwan's largest IMAX 3D ocean theater The unique themes and modern viewing facilities should make it a well-known landmark in Keelung However, the original exhibition planning was static and highly specialized, lacking sufficient interaction with the public Visitors who have attended the museum also reported that the exhibits were limited and quite boring, leading to poor overall consumer experience ratings The top three dissatisfactions with the museum were weak connections to surrounding attractions, unengaging display content, and lack of exhibit material According to statistics from the Marine Museum, the ratio of local to visiting guests is approximately 64, with most foreign visitors coming from the north transportation is primarily by car and bus common types of visits include family, parent-child, and friends and the stay duration is generally 1 to 2 hours Upon deeper investigation, the top three visitor complaints were weak linkages to surrounding attractions, unengaging display content, and insufficient number of exhibits The museum analyzed potential reasons, including some displays being too specialized, making it difficult for the public to understand, and a lack of interactive elements, making the exhibition boring and the visit hurriedly brief Analysis of visitor profiles revealed that since half of the museum's visitors are locals, and accessing the museum is not so easy for out-of-towners who must travel by car or public transport, the design of the venue and exhibitions must incorporate more interactivity and intrigue to encourage locals to return and extend the duration of visitors' stays while using technological services to highlight the museum's unique features Through a recommendation from the Information Software Association, part of the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Industrial Bureau AI team, the Marine Museum commissioned Jugu Technology to resolve the issue of uninspiring venue attractions Preliminary interviews by Jugu Technology revealed that many visitors were attracted by the architectural design of the museum, notices posted on nearby walls, flags, or events being held the most interesting feature for visitors was the 3D ocean theater, indicating that content presented through audio-video and physical scenic methods was more engaging Seven major AI technologies lead to a boost in regional tourism at the Marine Museum Through the introduction of technology services, Jugu Technology designed the 48-hectare site with seven major services AI voice tours, treasure hunt puzzle games, AI exhibit interactive revitalization, AI space exhibition interactive experience, AI crowd control, Face AI interactive experience, and AI voice customer service system By utilizing AIoT and cloud technology, they made the exhibition more interesting, not only solving the issue of boring static viewings for children but also doubling the learning efficiency and dramatically improving public perception of the Marine Museum, thus increasing visitor intent and boosting regional tourism The National Museum of Marine Science and Technology introduced seven major technological application services including AI voice guide Jugu Technology aimed to improve the space optimization of the Marine Museum, using the special exhibition of coastal birds in northern Taiwan as a prototype, integrating 'face', 'limb', 'crowd' as three main axes to enhance functionality and assist in improving the museum's application of AI Practically, the Marine Museum and Jugu Technology selected the on-site special exhibits to avoid any installation of water and electricity works or pipelines in active exhibits, thereby maintaining the quality of the viewing experience Instead, they selected exhibits that were not yet open to introduce a series of technological services tailored to the unique characteristics of the exhibits In the coastal bird special exhibition inside the Marine Museum, initial construction discussions with the curators utilized Bella X1 for a welcoming interactive introduction at the exhibition entrance This was followed by an AI-powered smart guide in both Chinese and English using X1 for narration, coupled with a fun treasure hunting stamp-collecting activity - APP X1, allowing visitors to participate in challenges Subsequently, bird species within the bird exhibition were brought to life interactively using X1, and AR scenarios X1 were introduced into the exhibition space to add elements of fun and entertainment Finally, Face AI was used to interactively test facial expressions and score smiles The gorgeously transformed Marine Museum will become the best travel destination for families with children ImageMarine Museum FB Page The AIoT services introduced by the Marine Museum could be extended to various exhibition-type museums and even static art galleries in the future, tailored to the unique characteristics of different venues They could also be promoted through government projects and related plans, aiding in rural revitalization, making visits more than just sightseeing in rural areas, and breaking free from stereotypes associated with different venues The applications of these services are broad「Translated content is generated by ChatGPT and is for reference only Translation date:2024-05-19」

【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」

【導入案例】哈瑪星科技建構AI模型管理平台 加速AI落地應用
Hamastar Technology Builds an AI Model Management Platform to Accelerate the Application of AI

Riding the AI hype train, financial service providers are using their solid foundation in the industry to not only transform themselves, but also assist their customers with transformation Hamastar Technology, which has been established for over two decades, has been developing AI technology and assisting industry customers with the implementation of AI in recent years Hamastar Technology believes that to implement a complete AI project, in addition to AI theoretical knowledge, data analysis, and model training capabilities, it is also necessary to develop APIs for data, establish databases, develop front-end RWD web pages, and even consider layout design and user experience based on customer needs These tasks create technical barriers for AI startups Even from the perspective of companies that have reached a certain scale, it is hard to accumulate technical experience and accelerate business growth due repeatedly investing manpower developing similar functions in each project Institutional customers still require high level of customization for AI Using the requirements of government Agency A implemented by Hamastar Technology as an example, users must control false information from specific channels The platform needs to provide data ingestion functions for training models and predictions, and can complete natural language processing NLP text classification model training and use When the model discovers false information, it needs to immediately notify responsible personnel through messaging software The need of Agency B is to use an AI model to automatically classify petitions and immediately provide information on past cases as reference for the petitioner or officer Although the project models are similar data ingestion, model prediction, warning notification, the required functions still need to be separately developed for individual projects, and existing programs and models cannot be reused to speed up the implementation of subsequent projects After in-depth discussion, Hamastar Technology found that pain points of enterprises implementing AI projects include high implementation costs and lengthy project schedules It is difficult for a single enterprise to simultaneously have data scientists, analysts, engineers, and designers Current projects are all focused on solving the needs of specific fields, and it is difficult to reuse the AI models in other fields of application At the same time, the tools are concentrated in AI projects and cannot provide customers with total solutions In other words, due to the "limited manpower," "restricted fields," and "insufficient tools" of AI service providers, the implementation of AI technology projects requires high costs or lengthy timelines These are common problems that companies urgently need to solve Therefore, if there is an AI model application service management platform, it will be able to solve the above difficulties and not only reduce costs, but also accelerate project implementation and provide customers with one-stop solutions AI model application service management platform assists in quickly completing projects Therefore, with the support of the AI project of the Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Hamastar Technology carried out the "AI Model Application Service Management Platform AISP RampD Project" and engaged in the RampD of AISP products The purpose is for AI service providers to complete the AI projects with twice the result using only half the effort The AISP provides one-stop AI solutions AI service providers can quickly assemble required functions, such as data API, model management, and model prediction result monitoring subscription through existing module functions of the AISP It also provides commonly used graphical tools to help companies quickly design interactive charts or dashboards required by users, effectively reducing the labor costs required to execute projects, shortening the solution POC or implementation time, and accelerating the implementation and diffusion of industry AI In terms of product business model, in the short term, the company will extensively invite IT service providers with expertise in the field of AI to work together, and use platform services to solve the AI implementation problems faced by requesting units in various field, gradually building trust in the platform brand In the mid-term, the company hopes to gradually expand the market based on its past success, and form strategic alliances with multiple IT service providers to solve more and wider problems in specialized fields and provide more solutions for units to choose from The platform combines field experts to jointly expand overseas markets In the long term, after establishing AI strategic alliances in various specialized fields, the platform will have a large number of AI solution experts for specialized fields After accumulating a large amount of successful project experience, Hamastar Technology hopes that the AISP will be able to work with experts companies to expand into the international market Harmastar Technology Co, Ltd was formed in 2000 by recruiting numerous senior professional managers and technical experts in related fields It is committed to software technology RampD and services, and aims to develop into an international software company, actively creating opportunities for international cooperation in the industry Under the excellent leadership of its first president, the company has rapidly grown into a major software company in Taiwan