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0 comments 0 commentsAt this online debriefing session, the progress of Axel Globe so far, examples of its use in Japan and overseas, and future plans were disclosed, so I will introduce the outline. [See more photos]
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Axelspace Corporation, which continues to run as the world's top runner in the space race that should be called the cutting-edge frontier, held an online business progress report meeting for the next-generation earth observation platform "AxelGlobe". AxelGlobe is a satellite constellation consisting of five microsatellite satellites, and Axelspace is developing services for companies and governments based on various information such as image data obtained from it. After expanding from one satellite system to five satellite systems in June 2021, AxelGlobe has expanded its service lineup and expanded its fields of use, and has achieved rapid business growth accordingly. In addition, it plans to launch more satellites in the future to strengthen the observation system and expand its business. At this online debriefing session, the progress of Axel Globe so far, examples of its use in Japan and overseas, and future plans were disclosed, so I will introduce the outline. Overview of Axelspace's satellite constellation AxelGlobe The Axelspace satellite constellation AxelGlobe is operated by five self-developed and manufactured microsatellite named GRUS. Although GRUS is a very compact size for a space satellite of 100 kg class, it has a ground resolution of 2.5 m, a shooting width of 57 km in the east-west direction, more than 1000 km in the north-south direction, and once every two days in the mid-latitude region including Japan. The shooting frequency of is realized. AxelGlobe is more than just providing users with captured satellite images. It is a vertically integrated solution provision platform that includes services from taking images according to the purpose of use to analyzing the obtained images and extracting information useful for decision making. The company accumulates satellite images acquired daily by Axel Globe as big data, and analyzes them to provide information that is the basis of corporate management decisions and administrative policy decisions. Furthermore, in June of last year, we started a service "Axel Globe Tasking & Monitoring" that regularly shoots new images in the area desired by the user. Agriculture is a typical use of satellite images acquired by Axel Globe. Since GRUS is equipped with a near-infrared sensor, it is possible not only to simply check the growth status by taking images of the fields, but also to perform NDVI analysis to realize more precise measurement of the growth status. "It is possible to visualize the growing situation of plants by color like thermography, and it is possible to grasp at a glance which is growing and where there is an abnormality. This can be used worldwide. It is progressing and is being used to improve the efficiency of agriculture in large-scale agricultural land. ”(Yusuke Nakanishi, Director, CPO of Accelerator Space Co., Ltd.) (hereinafter referred to as Mr. Nakanishi) It is used for research needs in areas where it is difficult to cover manually. In addition, although renewal and repair of infrastructure such as dilapidated roads has become a global issue, satellite images can also be used for checking the damage status of floods and earthquakes and managing the progress of construction. In addition, by applying spectrum analysis technology, we are also developing a service to detect deterioration and abnormalities of infrastructure. Furthermore, for example, by analyzing traffic volume or measuring the shipment volume of automobiles at ports, it is possible to calculate indicators that serve as basic data for economic activities. In other words, satellite images will be available as a BI tool that contributes to management decisions, and we are currently developing various new analysis technologies in collaboration with companies with analysis technologies around the world. The expansion of functions due to the increase in the number of operating satellites of AxelGlobe and the accompanying expansion of applications have led to the rapid sales growth of Axelspace. In the second half of 2021, when there were five satellites, sales increased by about 19 times compared to the same period of the previous year. In the first half of 2022, it is expected to double that amount, and sales are expected to grow about 17 times compared to the same period of the previous year. In order to expand the area of utilization of satellite data, we are also promoting collaboration with companies around the world. It has already established partnerships with more than 50 companies, and plans to expand collaboration to a wider range of business areas and markets. 7 use cases of AxelGlobe that are being used more and more Following the explanation of the current status of the AxelGlobe business, use cases in Japan and overseas were introduced. The first overseas case introduced was Data Farming, an Australian urinary tech startup that provides farmers around the world with satellite imagery-based crop growth management services. "Previously, we used satellite images with a resolution of more than 10 m from ESA / EU satellites, but we needed higher resolution image data for fast-growing crops such as rice, cotton, and sugar cane. 2021 From the end of November to December of the year, we photographed a total of about 1 million hectares of area. We further process about 130,000 hectares of data and provide it to our customers. We will continue to partner with Accelerator Space. We want to strengthen and serve more customers. ”(Data Farming Managing Director & CEO, Time Neale) Russia's Exact Farming also uses satellite images of Axel Globe for risk management and decision making in agriculture. We provide services that can be used as basic information for. As many as 8,500 farmers are already using the company's services, and the total amount of farmland is 8.6 million hectares. We are also developing a farmland production index map service that will be used to discover land with stable yields in the future by performing NDVI analysis on AxelGlobe satellite images. HEAD Aerospace of France provides remote sensing image provision services in a wide range of fields other than agriculture. "Our company provides high-resolution and medium-resolution remote sensing images to partners around the world, including Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, North America, Latin America, and the region around Russia. Red Edge with a ground resolution of 2.5 m. I feel that GRUS satellites equipped with sensors can store our 45 satellite portfolios well. ”(HEAD Aerospace Managing Director, HEAD Aerospace Group, Kammy Brun) The fourth overseas case is Lloyds Financial, a resource management and investment advisory service provider in Zambia, is working with Accelerator Space to monitor roads and other infrastructure and develop solutions for the financial sector in Zambia and African countries. "Data has never been so much needed for Zambia's development and problem solving. We have satellite data and its analysis with practical spatial and temporal resolution for both the public and private sectors. We have established the Lloyds Data Special Center for the purpose of providing capabilities, and have realized the access function to data that can be used for various purposes such as geographical BI. Satellite technology and remote sensing technology of accelerator space. Will be a strong foundation for us to support Zambia and Africa as a whole. "(Lloyds Financials CEO Lloyds Chingambo, 3 others) The first domestic case is disaster prevention science, a national research and development corporation established by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. By utilizing satellite data for grasping damage in the event of a disaster, which is being promoted at the laboratory, the damage situation has already been published on the site based on GRUS data in the eruption of Mt. Aso in October 2021. The Institute for Disaster Prevention Science is a research institute that aims to comprehensively improve predictive power, preventive power, responsiveness, and resilience against natural disasters. It is important to link this to quick recovery and reconstruction. "For example, in Typhoon No. 15 in the first year of Reiwa, the situation could hardly be grasped at the time of the first report immediately after the disaster, and information was available about a month later. It is necessary to grasp the entire damage as soon as possible. Yes, the current information is not enough. I think that satellites will be important. "(Mr. Hitoshi Taguchi, Deputy Director, Disaster Prevention Information Research Division, Assistant Director, National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention) Immediately after a disaster, SNS etc. Although the damage situation is transmitted in fragments, it is not wide-area and two-dimensional information, and it is important to grasp the entire damage situation using satellites in order to activate specific operations. In particular, data from satellites will be relied on until 24 hours have passed after the disaster, when aerial photographs and drones can be used. It is expected that the damage will be extremely widespread in a huge earthquake such as the Nankai Trough, and the satellites of multiple countries, organizations, and companies will be bundled to improve the immediacy and wide area of satellite data in order to grasp the damage situation at an early stage. The Cabinet Office is taking the lead in research and development of the system "one-stop system". It is expected that more satellites will be launched to expand the temporal and spatial coverage of the Axel Globe, which currently operates five satellites. Disaster prevention system for natural disasters The second domestic example is the river disaster prevention system being developed by Aizawa High Pressure Concrete Co., Ltd. Aizawa High Pressure Concrete is a company that is promoting global expansion mainly in the ready-mixed concrete business and foundation ground business, but in collaboration with Namie Town, Fukushima Prefecture, which is constructing a research and development type production base, practical application of a river disaster prevention system using satellite data We are promoting. This river disaster prevention system is a system that detects signs of river flooding from changes in river width based on satellite data and provides disaster prevention information to areas where inundation damage is predicted. As the current Axel Globe shooting frequency is up to once every two days, satellites alone cannot handle the information that requires real-time performance, such as changes in river width. Therefore, in the development phase of this disaster prevention system, the river width is measured using a ground-based laser 3D scanner, and the rebellion is predicted by comparing it with the analysis results of satellite data. However, there are more than 20,000 small and medium-sized rivers in Japan, and it is not realistic to measure all of them with fixed sensors. Therefore, we are planning to develop an engine drone that can fly even in rainy weather and strong winds, and use it for ground observation. Disaster prediction information is notified to residents in the area through apps such as smartphones. At that time, not only the estimated time of river flooding, but also the real-time video of the river at the present time by the drone will be delivered to support the evacuation of the residents. Looking at the evacuation situation at the time of disasters so far, there are many people who do not have a sense of crisis only with evacuation warnings. I hope that it will be an effective app for the safety and security of residents. As the third domestic case, the case of JX PRESS, which collects information with the power of technology, supports the media and provides information to local governments and the general public, was taken up. The company uses Axel Globe's satellite data for the big data risk information SaaS "FASTALERT" that is being developed for governments and corporations. FASTALERT analyzes information posted through major SNS such as Twitter and Instagram and its own news app, and provides it to companies, local governments and governments as risk information. For example, the company also distributes the new corona information posted on the top page of Yahoo Japan. At this time, since the information posted on SNS etc. is point information, it is difficult to grasp the whole picture of the information as it is. Therefore, the company's original technology is to reconstruct it as point-to-line and line-to-plane information by superimposing it on big data such as live cameras and automobile telematics data. FASTALERT reads about 1000 to 2000 pieces of information posted on SNS per minute, and applies AI technologies such as natural language processing and image analysis to them to determine when, where, and what happened. It is delivered in about 60 seconds at the shortest. FASTALERT has been introduced by many media companies and infrastructure companies, and many users need satellite images in the event of a disaster. Therefore, AI is instructed to take a picture of the satellite, and the service is provided especially to media personnel. For example, in the landslide disaster that occurred in Atami last year, the drone could be flown one day after the disaster occurred, and NHK also could not enter the site on the first day. The video posted on Twitter was played on NHK from the time of the disaster around noon to the evening, and FASTALERT detected it 12 seconds after posting. In response to a request for more wide-area information, we distributed images taken with Axel Globe. "In order to capture such localization, intensification, and disasters that affect a wide area from various angles, we obtained images from SNS seen from the ground, images seen from space, images of drones a little closer, or from automobiles. It is necessary to combine various information such as information. For that purpose, we provide services linked with accelerator space on FASTALERT. "(JX PRESS Corporation FASTALERT Public Strategy Unit Manager Daisuke Fujii) FASTALERT handles not only domestic but also overseas information, and also takes pictures of the world that no one has seen, such as images of the trajectory of the Antarctic observation ship from a satellite. FASTALERT, a very unique information transmission platform that combines AI and satellites, will continue to expand its field of activity in the future. AxelGlobe's new product lineup that appears one after another In addition to the AxelGlobe Tasking & Monitoring currently being offered, four new products have been announced. The first is AG Archive, a service that allows you to freely use satellite images taken and accumulated by Axel Globe. It is also possible to compare ground landscapes on different time axes and to compare shooting conditions such as cloud cover. As a possible use, we would like you to use it for time-series change surveys and city planning formulation related to environmental problems and current affairs. The second product is AG Cloudless Mosaic, a service that provides images that exclude clouds that are inherent in satellite images, and is expected to be used as a base map for map creation and disaster prevention. First of all, we are planning to release a cloudless base map for the whole of Japan, but we are planning to provide it overseas in order from the place with high needs. The third is AG Custom Capture, which allows the user to specify the desired shooting date for events and current affairs with fixed schedules. It also meets the needs of people who want to take pictures immediately after a disaster occurs. It will be possible to shoot the next day since the shortest. In the future, it is said that it will expand the satellites and aim to provide images within a few hours after the request. The last new product, AG Reservation, is a service that only shoots images without purchasing them, and the captured images are purchased later when needed. It is supposed to be used by taking pictures of areas where international affairs are attracting attention and purchasing images in advance after an incident occurs. Users can purchase only the images they need when they need them, which is a huge cost advantage for users. Axelspace plans to launch more satellites to enhance the functionality of AxelGlobe, including future service expansion. In addition to the four satellites launched in June 2021, four satellites will be added to Axel Globe in the 4th quarter of 2022. This makes it possible to improve the shooting frequency, which is currently once every two days, to once a day. "For example, in agriculture, there is a request to observe every day and make a plan for tomorrow's work. Also, it is possible to increase the possibility of taking images of sunny weather (as the frequency increases), and support the shooting system of AG Cloudless Mosaic. We have received feedback from various customers about the increase in shooting capacity, and we believe that we can promote the use of Axel Globe to a wider range of shooting applications and customers who have not been able to reach before. "(Nakanishi) Mr.) By increasing the number of hygiene, a system will be established that allows you to continue recording where you want to shoot when you want to. Since the satellite is developed in-house, there is a cost advantage, and it is possible to provide services that match the needs of users. It was a business progress report meeting that strongly impressed that Axelspace, which acquired high resolution and large shooting capacity, is driving the development of Japan's space development business, which was said to be delayed. Information on the distribution of "ASCII STARTUP Weekly Review" ASCII STARTUP publishes the results of interviews with the latest domestic startup information, event reports, related ecosystem experts, etc. every Monday in the e-mail magazine entitled "ASCII STARTUP Weekly Review". It is delivered to. If you are interested, please click the registration form button below and set your e-mail address.Sentence ● BookLOUD root
Last updated: ASCII