NTT East et al., Demonstration toward the realization of automated strawberry cultivation using local 5G

East Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Saitama Branch (hereafter, NTT East) on December 22 adopted the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications FY2021 “Development and demonstration for the realization of problem-solving local 5G” in August 2021. In response to this, they announced that they would start a demonstration experiment for "realization of intelligent and automated strawberry cultivation using local 5G for economic recovery from the new corona".

In addition to NTT East, ITOCHU Techno-Solutions, Nippon Comsys, Ichigo Batake, GINZAFARM, Saitama Prefecture Osato Agriculture and Forestry Promotion Center, Fukaya City, Hanazono Agricultural Cooperative, NTT Agritechnology, Musashino Bank, Agriculture and Food Industry The National Institute of Technology participates.

In this demonstration experiment, we will work on two themes of "technical demonstration" and "problem demonstration" to realize more flexible operation of local 5G (5th generation mobile communication system).

As a "technical demonstration", we will establish technology related to area construction so that local 5G systems can be constructed in various environments. It is said that they will study with the aim of disseminating such equipment. Specifically, we plan to refine the radio wave propagation model, make the area construction flexible with radio wave reflectors, and develop additional patterns for quasi-synchronous TDD (Time Division Duplex).

In addition, as a "challenge demonstration", we aim for "profitable agriculture" by realizing "visualization of tourist farm sites" by utilizing advanced technologies such as stable high-speed large-capacity communication by local 5G, robots, and AI. The company plans to use these technologies to detect strawberry diseases, grasp quantities by ripeness level, and guide customers.