Smart farm technology that protects workers’ safety
The Korea Institute of Industrial Technology has succeeded in commercializing smartphone-based smart farm technology.

Due to the record-breaking heat wave that continues day after day, grapevine leaves and berries are drying up, putting grape farmers on high alert ahead of harvest.

To prevent sunburn, which is damage to the surface of the fruit caused by strong direct sunlight and high temperatures, water should be sprayed frequently to replenish moisture and the surrounding temperature should be lowered. However, most grape farm workers are elderly and thus at high risk of heat-related illnesses.

Although smart farms reduce the amount of work for farmers, they are concentrated in vinyl houses and glass greenhouses equipped with internet facilities, making it difficult for most small farmers to benefit.

Meanwhile, the team led by Senior Researcher Seung-Hwan Yang of the Convergence Agricultural Machinery Group at the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) developed a smart farm technology based on smartphones and succeeded in commercializing it for the first time in the world in a grape farm.

The smartphone-based environmental measurement and control technology developed by the research team can be used anywhere smartphones can be used, even without an Internet connection, and the construction cost is about 20-30% lower than that of existing smart farms.

The environmental measurement equipment implemented with Saenggiwon’s technology collects and analyzes eight types of growth information in real time, including air and soil temperature, humidity, light intensity, and carbon dioxide concentration, through IoT sensors, and displays them on an indoor display board. By looking at this information, workers can remotely control things like watering or opening and closing greenhouse windows according to weather changes without having to go to the site. In addition, the information collected in this way is stored and managed as big data to provide optimal growth conditions for grape production.

The research team participated in the SFS (Smart Farm Solution) Convergence Research Group launched by the National Research Council of Science and Technology (NST) in 2015, achieved results in just two years, and transferred the technology to Jinong Co., Ltd. (CEO Lee Se-yong), a smart farm specialist, in March of this year.

With the support of Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi Province, Jinong is applying and managing the technology transferred to 56 grape farms in the region and is scheduled to harvest its first grapes (Campbell Early variety) at the end of August. The data accumulated in this process, such as growth information, quality information, and farming journals, will be shared with the Hwaseong City Agricultural Technology Center and utilized as big data to improve grape quality.

Senior Researcher Yang Seung-hwan said, “The technology applied this time is a general-purpose smart farm technology that can be used in fields and mountainous areas,” and added, “Through follow-up research, we will expand the scope of application to other crops and livestock farms in addition to grapes, thereby reducing the burden on small-scale farmers and contributing to the spread of smart farms.”