Institute of Agricultural Machinery, NARO

In agriculture, farm work is carried out under field conditions such as shape and land bearing capacity, weather conditions such as rainfall and dusk, work conditions such as dust and fine particles, and crop conditions such as yield and lodging. Therefore, the use conditions of agricultural machinery are extremely varied and changed from time to time. Currently, many of the responses to these changes in conditions are made through workers' operations and adjustments, and in some cases, a part of the sorting and other work is done on the machine by a person, enabling flexible response. On the other hand, systems that rely on the ability and attention of such people are also a factor in the frequent occurrence of farm accidents. Therefore, in order to achieve zero accidents, it is important to create situations in which workers can work safely with little burden by operating the machine in coordination with the environment and the conditions of workers.
The Collaborative Safety Systems Group will incorporate this concept of "Coordinated Safety" and develop new safety devices and safety systems. To ensure the safety of newly developed robot farm machinery and automated agricultural machinery in actual operations, we will also evaluate the range of applications for various sensors, develop systems that complement safety in a variety of environments, and elucidate the requirements for the development of field infrastructure.