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What is IoP (Internet of Plants) ?
The IoP (Internet of Plants) is a system for "visualizing" crop physioecological information, such as photosynthesis and growth, which determine crop production, "functionalizing" the information for daily agricultural management, and "sharing" such information among growers. The IoP is a regional information infrastructure that will realize a new type of agriculture in the near-future society (Society 5.0), where the real space we live in every day will be closely integrated with cyber space through the Internet and AI.
About the IoP Collaborative Creation Center (IoPC3)
Kochi University established the IoP Collaborative Creation Center (or IoPC3) in October 2021 as an interdisciplinary education and research facility to contribute to the building of a sustainable regional society and the development of human resources, aiming at realizing Society 5.0 in the agricultural sector, which is a major industry in Kochi Prefecture. We invite many prominent researchers from leading universities and major IT companies in Japan and abroad to take on the challenge of "creating together" the world's first IoP.
Center Philosophy
Through close collaboration among industry, government, academia, and crop producers, and by leading the way in the new academic field of "regional information co-creation science" through the fusion of different fields such as agricultural science and data science, we will promote the construction and enhancement of the IoP cloud, with the aim of promoting the Digital Transformation (DX) of horticulture in Kochi Prefecture.
Vision
We innovate agriculture for the next generation and create local communities by quantifying, functionalizing, and sharing information related to the crop physioecology and growth environment.
Mission
- We promote research and development (R&D) related to the IoP in the field of horticulture through collaborative creation among industry, academia, government and local communities.
- We disseminate IoP technology to crop producers and foster human resources who will be responsible for the next generation of agriculture.
- We contribute to the development of sustainable local communities and the international community by strengthening the power of agriculture. The IoP technology developed in the field of horticulture will be evolved to the digital transformation (DX) of the entire primary industry.
Organization and management structure
Organization of IoPC3
Research Outline
Visualization of Crop Physioecology
The past, present, and future crop physioecology (photosynthesis, transpiration, growth, yield, etc.), which is difficult to measure, can be visualized using environmental information and crop image information that can be easily obtained at crop production sites. It is expected that agriculture will evolve through farmers' ingenuity and rational farm management support (forecasting, optimization, technical diagnosis, etc.) based on crop physioecological information provided by the IoP.
Development of hybrid AI models
In order to visualize the diverse physioecological information of crops, which is difficult to measure in the field, we are developing diverse hybrid AI models that integrate theoretical models and AI. Hybrid AI models are the core models of IoP that can achieve high accuracy and generalization performance.
