Yamaha Motor To Use NVIDIA’s Jetson AGX Xavier Platform To Develop Intelligent Ag, Logistics & Transportation Products

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Yamaha Motor says it will use NVIDIA’s Jetson AGX Xavier platform to develop intelligent products with autonomous abilities for agriculture, logistics, marine, and last-mile-transportation purposes. Unmanned ground vehicles and drones, for example, could complete such autonomous ag-related processes as fruit picking, spraying crops, and transporting harvested crops to storage areas. (Photo courtesy of Yamaha Motor.)

Yamaha Motor plans to use NVIDIA’s Jetson AGX Xavier platform to develop intelligent products with autonomous abilities that target agriculture, logistics, marine, and last-mile-transportation applications. In addition to industrial robots and drones, resulting products are likely to include unmanned ground vehicles for handling autonomous ag-related processes such as picking fruit, and logistics-related products such as low-speed vehicles based on golf carts for transporting people and goods.

Rural Ag Issues

NVIDIA is a leading global developer and manufacturer of graphics processing units for computers. According to NVIDIA, the Jetson AGX Xavier-powered unmanned ground vehicles and drones that Yamaha developes could be used to “efficiently spray farmland, visualize crop growth, and transport harvested crops to storage areas.” NVIDIA says with Japan’s agriculture workforce dipping more than 30% since 2010 and the average ag worker’s age being about 67, automating processes with smart machinery is particularly important in the ag sector.

In terms of unmanned ground vehicles, Yamaha aims to develop intelligent ag vehicles that could help address decreasing rural population issues and help automate agricultural work and promote precision agriculture. Where autonomous low-speed vehicles based on golf carts are concerned, Yamaha aims to introduce new forms of transportation in depopulated mountainous regions, tourist spots, and urban areas. Currently, NVIDIA says, taxis and buses aren’t readily available in Japanese rural areas. Further, 7 million shoppers require regular transportation, and that number is rising.

“Massive Computing Performance”

Billed as the “world’s first computer created for AI, robotics, and edge computing,” Jetson AGX Xavier’s “massive computing performance” can tackle “odometry, localization, mapping, vision and perception, and path planning” that’s critical to next-generation robots, NVIDIA says. “Using Xavier to infuse intelligence into its machines, Yamaha Motor will be able to bring to market what once seemed impossible to create,” stated Deepu Talla, NVIDIA vice president and general manager of autonomous machines.

Yamaha is expected to begin testing Jetson AGX Xavier-powered products in 2019 with the goal of a 2020 release. Besides Yamaha, NVIDIA says FANUC, Komatsu, Musashi Seimitsu, and Kawada Technologies plan to adopt the Jetson AGX Xavier platform.

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Source: Yamaha Motor