Exercise on Environmental Monitoring and Control of Greenhouse by IoT Devices toward Smart Agriculture

As crops in greenhouses are widely distributed, IoT devices placed near the crops should be stand-alone and modular, and data from the devices are collected over the networks. Smart agriculture requires knowledge of a wide range of fields including electricity, information, and image processing. We have designed an AI and IoT technology exercise on environmental monitoring and control of a greenhouse where we have been preparing for grow up of tomatoes and other vegetables.The 2022 International Conference on Artificial Life and Robotics (ICAROB 2022), January 20-23, 2022, on line, Oita, Japa

Crack Detection in a Concrete Structure Using an Underwater Vehicle

In this paper, to realize efficient underwater infrastructure inspection, automatic crack detection by image processing is proposed. In first process of our method generates enhanced image based on the absorbance from the turbidity meter and removes background component, and then detects crack from the enhanced image by using decision tree learning algorithm. This paper explains the algorithm of our method and shows evaluation experiment results.The 2021 International Conference on Artificial Life and Robotics (ICAROB 2021), January 21-24, 2021, Higashi-Hiroshima (オンライン開催に変更

Zinc Supplementation with Polaprezinc Protects Mouse Hepatocytes against Acetaminophen-Induced Toxicity via Induction of Heat Shock Protein 70

Polaprezinc, a chelate compound consisting of zinc and l-carnosine, is clinically used as a medicine for gastric ulcers. It has been shown that induction of heat shock protein (HSP) is involved in protective effects of polaprezinc against gastric mucosal injury. In the present study, we investigated whether polaprezinc and its components could induce HSP70 and prevent acetaminophen (APAP) toxicity in mouse primary cultured hepatocytes. Hepatocytes were treated with polaprezinc, zinc sulfate or l-carnosine at the concentration of 100 µM for 9 h, and then exposed to 10 mM APAP. Polaprezinc or zinc sulfate increased cellular HSP70 expression. However, l-carnosine had no influence on it. Pretreatment of the cells with polaprezinc or zinc sulfate significantly suppressed cell death as well as cellular lipid peroxidation after APAP treatment. In contrast, pretreatment with polaprezinc did not affect decrease in intracellular glutathione after APAP. Furthermore, treatment with KNK437, an HSP inhibitor, attenuated increase in HSP70 expression induced by polaprezinc, and abolished protective effect of polaprezinc on cell death after APAP. These results suggested that polaprezinc, in particular its zinc component, induces HSP70 expression in mouse primary cultured hepatocytes, and inhibits lipid peroxidation after APAP treatment, resulting in protection against APAP toxicity

Sea Trials for Benthos Sampling Using Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

For enhancement of oceanic engineering technology and researchers, underwater robot competition has been held since 2016. Seventh competition in this year consists AUV league that university\u27s vehicles automatically cruise at field and junior league that underwater craft is made. The paper reports competition regulations of AUV and junior league and results of the competition held in October 2019.The 2020 International Conference on Artificial Life and Robotics (ICAROB 2020), January 13-16, 2020, B-Con Plaza, Beppu, Oit

An Optical Image Transmission System for Deep Sea Creature Sampling Missions Using Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

The exploration of oceans using autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) is necessary for activities, such as the sustainable management of fishery resources, extraction of seafloor minerals and energy resources, and inspection of underwater infrastructure. As the next step in ocean exploration, AUVs are expected to employ end-effectors to make physical contact with seafloor creatures and materials. We propose a scenario for realizing a sampling mission using an AUV that is equipped to sample marine life. In this scenario, the sampling AUV observes the seafloor while concurrently transmitting the observed images to a surface vessel for inspection by the AUV operators. If the received images show an object of interest, the object is selected as a candidate of sampling target by the operators, who send a sampling command to the AUV. After receiving the command, the AUV returns to the target area and attempts to sample it. In this paper, we propose a system for transmitting images of the seafloor as part of the sampling-mission scenario. The proposed image transmission system includes a process for enhancing images of the deep seafloor, a process for selecting interesting images, and processes for compressing and reconstructing images. The image enhancement process resolves imaging problems resulting from light attenuation, such as color attenuation and uneven illumination. The process for selecting interesting images selects those that contain interesting objects, such as marine life. The selection process prevents the transmission of meaningless images that contain only flat sand on the seafloor. The proposed image compression method, which is based on color depth compression, reduces the amount of data. The combined process of selecting an interesting image and compressing it reduces various problems in acoustic communication, such as low information density and data loss. Instead of an overall image, part of an overall image is transmitted by a set of data packet, and each received data packet is reconstructed onboard the vessel. Because of image compression, the colors of a reconstructed image differ from those of an enhanced image. However, the reconstructed image contains similar colors, and the structural similarity index was found to be 91.4% by evaluating images that were subjected to a 4-b color compression. The proposed image transmission system was tested in the Sea of Okhotsk, and these tests were performed four times in different sea areas (minimum depth 380 m, maximum depth 590 m). The results show that the size of the data for a single image was reduced by a factor of 18 using the proposed image compression process, with each image taking 3.7 s to be transmitted via an acoustic modem (20 kb/s). Of the automatically selected images, 63% contained marine life, and the total transmission success rate was 22%

Evaluation of underwater vehicle\u27s self-localization based on visual odometry or sensor odometry

This research focuses on two self-localization methods for observation of the sea floor and sampling. One is a method of estimate the self-localization using Kalman filter from the acceleration data calculated from equation of motion and the velocity data considering the effect of underwater vehicle\u27s oscillation. The other is visual odometry using a stereo camera. The AUV was deployed in a sea area 40m depth to evaluate the performance of self-localization estimated by two methods. Self-localization estimation using Kalman filter was less accurate than visual odometry, but it was confirmed that the variance of the estimated velocity was smaller than before estimation. In the visual odometry using stereo camera, it was confirmed that the estimation error depends on the travel direction of AUV and the moving direction of a stereo camera.2019 IEEE 14th International Conference on Industrial and Information Systems (ICIIS 2019), 18- 20, December, 2019, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lank

A Greenhouse Project toward Smart Agriculture

In the future estimation of 2050, the food demand increases 70% and the production decreases 15% caused by global warming, and farmer population be 1/5 of current workers. Until 2050, we need an agricultural system of twice production with the same farmland area and 5 times effective operations. To realize the sustainable society, smart agriculture including robot technology, AI, IoT is one of the solutions for food issues. We have been working for a greenhouse project under enPiT-everi for implementation of robotic, AI and IoT technologies to agriculture. In this paper, we introduce the project and robotic applications.The 2021 International Conference on Artificial Life and Robotics (ICAROB 2021), January 21-24, 2021, Higashi-Hiroshima (オンライン開催に変更

Tomato-Harvesting Robot Competition: Aims and Developed Robot of 6th Competitions

In general, farm work is often hard work. In recent years, the number of farm laborers has been decreasing due to the aging of the workforce. Therefore, there is a need to automate agricultural work, and we are organizing a tomato harvesting robot competition to automate tomato harvesting. The competition includes a Junior Division for high school students and a Senior Division for college students. In this paper, we report on the results of 6th tomato harvesting robot competition.The 2021 International Conference on Artificial Life and Robotics (ICAROB 2021), January 21-24, 2021, Higashi-Hiroshima (オンライン開催に変更

Robot competition for underwater technology researchers and students

To promote the research of oceanic engineering technology, an underwater robot competition has been held since 2016. The seventh competition this year consists of AUV leagues, in which vehicles developed by university teams automatically cruise in the field, and junior leagues that participate in making underwater craft. This paper presents the competition regulations for the AUV and junior leagues and the results of the competition held in October 2019

Polaprezinc Protects Mice against Endotoxin Shock

Polaprezinc (PZ), a chelate compound consisting of zinc and l-carnosine (Car), is an anti-ulcer drug developed in Japan. In the present study, we investigated whether PZ suppresses mortality, pulmonary inflammation, and plasma nitric oxide (NO) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α levels in endotoxin shock mice after peritoneal injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and how PZ protects against LPS-induced endotoxin shock. PZ pretreatment inhibited the decrease in the survival rate of mice after LPS injection. PZ inhibited the increases in plasma NO as well as TNF-α after LPS. Compatibly, PZ suppressed LPS-induced inducible NO synthase mRNA transcription in the mouse lungs. PZ also improved LPS-induced lung injury. However, PZ did not enhance the induction of heat shock protein (HSP) 70 in the mouse lungs after LPS. Pretreatment of RAW264 cells with PZ suppressed the production of NO and TNF-α after LPS addition. This inhibition likely resulted from the inhibitory effect of PZ on LPS-mediated nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) activation. Zinc sulfate, but not Car, suppressed NO production after LPS. These results indicate that PZ, in particular its zinc subcomponent, inhibits LPS-induced endotoxin shock via the inhibition of NF-κB activation and subsequent induction of proinflammatory products such as NO and TNF-α, but not HSP induction