Achieving sustainable agriculture requires a substantial reduction in agricultural work-related accidents. To this end, it is essential not to rely solely on individual experience or attentiveness, but to develop safety measures based on engineering and technological approaches and to ensure their widespread adoption in actual agricultural production sites.
In this department, we focus on the successive stages of safety enhancement, including safety awareness to improve the capability to perform tasks safely, prevention through the detection and notification of abnormalities before they lead to hazardous situations, and avoidance to prevent accidents even when danger arises. Based on this framework, we are working on the development of comprehensive safety systems.
In recent years in particular, we have been advancing technology development that leverages rapidly evolving information technologies, with an emphasis on reproducing agricultural work accidents in virtual environments, conducting detailed analyses of machine and operator behavior at the time of accidents, and enabling early detection of abnormal conditions. Furthermore, building on these outcomes, we are conducting research and development aimed at creating awareness systems that help farmers perceive accidents as personally relevant issues, as well as safety systems that realize accident prediction and avoidance through the use of artificial intelligence.
