The full picture of ``Gyuwaka'', a delivery detection system for beef cattle using AI

Noritsu Precision Co., Ltd. (Wakayama City, President Tatsuya Hoshino) is developing a beef cattle delivery detection system "Gyuwaka" that uses image recognition artificial intelligence (AI). Cows approaching calving become restless, standing up, sitting down, and walking around in circles. By automatically detecting changes in behavior that are signs of childbirth using AI and notifying them on smartphones, the aim is to reduce the burden on livestock farmers involved in childbirth assistance and to avoid accidents during childbirth.

The company is a top manufacturer of film photo processing equipment. Taking advantage of imaging technology such as image processing, the company entered the medical and nursing care field, selling the nursing care monitoring robot "NeoScare" for facilities that detects signs of dangerous movements of elderly people.

Associate Professor Hisashi Nabenishi of the Kitasato University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine wondered if it was possible to use image analysis to detect signs of delivery in cattle. However, the risky behavior of elderly people and the signs of delivery in cows are completely different, so it was necessary to develop a system from scratch.

Algorithms for image recognition were built using complex conditional sentences at Neoscare, but Ushiwaka said, "You can make decisions just by feeding them data." Mr. Yasutaka) decided to adopt AI.

However, there are no AI engineers who have received specialized training in the company. Mr. Omoke decided to customize and incorporate an open source (OSS) AI that has been published. What is important is "how good data can be collected" for AI to learn (Mr. Omaya). With the cooperation of livestock farmers nationwide from Tohoku to Okinawa, AI was made to learn 700,000 to 800,000 data.

Looking back on the development, Mr. Omoke said, "I was worried about how to incorporate it into the product." A 93% rate of labor begins within 6 hours of recognizing signs of labor. Although there are some false positives, a highly practical system has been completed and is appreciated by farmers.

With the development of beef waka, the company has started working on "smart livestock farming" that solves the problems of livestock farmers by utilizing information and communication technology (ICT). Chinatsu Naruo, the planning and sales leader of the project, said, "It is important to be able to easily develop new products (with AI)." Farmers have high hopes for the development of products that improve productivity.

Mr. He is exploring the possibility of using AI to improve and develop existing products. (Minami-Osaka Bureau Chief, Hiroyuki Kobayashi)

Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun February 11, 2022