Yamaha Motor signs to collaborate with Australian AgTech company, The Yield, for smart agricultural solutions - Toward labor saving, efficiency improvements, and optimization through partnerships with agricultural startups -

IWATA, June 9，2021 - Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. (Tokyo: 7272), today announced the signing of a joint development agreement on smart agriculture with Australian startup "The Yield Technology Solutions" (hereinafter "The Yield"). Through this joint development, the company aims to help improve agricultural productivity in the utilization of digital technology and robotics.

The Yield is an Australian agricultural technology company on a mission to transform food and farming practices with scalable digital technology. The Yield uses Internet of Things (IoT), data science and artificial intelligence (AI) to power its technology to solve real challenges at farm level and throughout the food chain. Its Sensing+ microclimate solution combines sensors and analytics to provide information and predictions that help growers make important on-farm decisions like when to irrigate, feed, plant, protect and harvest.

The trial aims to improve harvest prediction accuracy by gathering growth stage data through visual data collection. It also aims to optimize spray effectiveness by integrating robotics technologies with weather data and spray guidelines to maximize autonomous spray efficiency. Yamaha Motor has automation solutions in the agricultural field using robotics technology applications like an agricultural Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV).

The trial combines these solutions with The Yield’s analytics technologies to further promote business development in the smart agriculture field. Furthermore, in collaboration with global premium wine company, Treasury Wine Estates (TWE), (Headquarters: Melbourne, Australia), the companies aim to improve development speed and accuracy by conducting a large field data collection and experiments in TWE vineyards in Australia and the West Coast of America.

This initiative is based on the 2020 investment through Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory Silicon Valley, a group company that conducts Corporate Venture Capital activities. Through its investments in early-stage innovative technology and venture companies with business models, Yamaha Motor, as not only a Monozukuri manufacturing company, can combine its strength of manufacturing in aiming to help provide solutions to meeting societal challenges.

■The Yield Technology Solutions Pty Ltd. - Overview