Sensin Robotics (President of Shibuya -ku, Tokyo, Takuya Kitamura) applied for an international competition for tropical rainforest surveys sponsored by the XPRIZE Foundation, a non -profit organization in the United States, and was the only selection in Japan in the first screening.The competition is about 1 billion yen in total prize money, and has developed ideas from companies around the world through the development of technology to investigate and monitor the ecology of rainforest in real time and analyze the data.After the second and tertiary examination, the final decision was in the spring of 2024.If selected, Sensin Robo can appeal to its own technology inside and outside.(Editorial committee member, Ayumi Shimada)
The decrease in the rainforest and the accompanying climate change have been featured in recent years as an environmental consumption, and are highly interested.Competition does not show specific methods for ecology and monitoring.
In the case of Sensin Robo, the candidates include cameras, sensing, satellite communication technology, etc. mounted on the flight robot (drone).The company has a strength to the Sensin Flight Core, which can fly multiple drones locally and store and manage shooting data and flight logs.Through this flight core, data such as images, temperature, humidity, and precipitation of various places in the rainforest will be analyzed using artificial intelligence (AI), leading to an understanding of the ecology.
"It makes sense to collect and analyze data from people who don't go to and have difficulty to go in real time," says Ken Oki, the company's solution department planning group, who is in charge of the project.In areas where the development is progressing, there are many cases where tropical rainforests, which were several months ago, are gone, and typhoons and illnesses are withering.If you can find such a situation as soon as possible, it will help conservation of the environment.
There are various places with rainforests, such as South America, Southeast Asia, and Africa.In the competition that Sensin Robo applies, the Asian region is in mind, the second screening will be held in the spring of 2013 and the finals will be held by June 2014.33 companies, including Sensin Robo, have passed the first screening, and is expected to be narrowed down to around 10 in the secondary screening.After passing the second screening, even if you fall in the finals, you will be given a development prize according to the ranking up to the third place.
Most of the current drones can fly for tens of minutes due to batteries in the case of multicopter type.It must also be considered for tropical squalls, the difference in wind speed and temperature due to altitude, the season and day and night.In addition to drones control, models, and number of machines, it is also important to combine technologies by other means such as satellite communication and robot.
Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun July 28, 2021