Mondrover robot revolutionizes agriculture for older farmers in Japan

Mondrover robot revolutionizes agriculture for older farmers in Japan

Japan has the oldest population in the world, with a third of the citizens over 65 years old and every tenth over 80 years. This demographic development is due to low birth rates and high life expectancy. The consequences of this aging are not only of a social nature, but also directly affect the employable population between the ages of 15 and 64, the number of which is expected to shrink by 30 million people by 2070

effects on agriculture

agriculture is particularly affected by this problem. According to the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing, the number of agricultural employees between 2000 and 2023 have halved. In addition, only about 20 % of farmers are less than 60 years old, which endangers future food production.

technological solutions and robotics

In addition to a more liberal approach in immigration policy, Japan also pursues new strategies for promoting birth rates to counteract the shortage of workers. The use of robotics to support workers is an innovative approach. Tamir Blum founded Kisui Tech in 2021 while he was still a student. The company uses space travel technologies to develop an AI-based agricultural robot.

the semi-autonomous robot Adam

The semi-autonomous robot is called Adam and can transport harvested products via difficult terrain, cut grasses and spray fields with pesticides. Blum, an Israeli born in the USA, who first visited Japan in 2015, returned in 2018 for his doctorate, in which he dealt with the navigation of moon drover on uneven terrain. He stated: "In the past 20 years, 50 % of farmers have retired, which means that fewer and fewer farmers have to produce more and more to maintain stable food supply."

observations in rural Japan

Blum continues: "During my doctoral program, I traveled a lot through the Japanese landscape. You can see clearly how big the difficulties are due to the shortage of labor. Many houses are empty ... The farmers are obviously older ... I recognize how challenging the situation is and what great possibility the technology of off-road robot offers, especially for fruit plants, which are also very uneven, similar to my research Space trobotics. “