TOCHIGI, May 19 — As Japan entered the rice planting season, an agricultural robot is busy laying trays containing rice seedlings in a greenhouse in Kanuma, Tochigi Prefecture.
Agurobo, developed nearly 30 years ago as a cutting-edge robot, can carry a total of 20 seedling trays on its two arms and place them all at once.
According to the robot’s manufacturer Suzutec, only two of such robots are still in operation within Japan. The robot has greatly supported the scale expansion of rice farming in the country by automating the labor-intensive work of placing seedling trays.
Kanuma, an agricultural production corporation in the city of Kanuma, cultivates rice on a 300-hectare land. It raises roughly 74,000 trays of rice seedlings to be used by itself and sold to other rice farms.
It is making good use of Agurobo TST-1000, a robot with two arms extending on both sides. It carries 10 seedling trays each on its arms and places them on the ground by tilting the arms.
Mulching films, used to cover the surface of soil to retain moisture and temperature as well as preventing weeds and pests, are also applied automatically.
Suzutec, based in Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, said Kanuma and a seedling raising center of JA Tottori Chuo, an agricultural cooperative in Kurayoshi, Tottori Prefecture, are the only facilities in Japan that still use the robot.
Agurobo needs to be used along with a special carrier made of iron to load seedling trays, but the use of the robot declined after farms shifted to resin-made carriers that are lighter and easier to handle.
Agurobo is seen laying rice seedling trays at a greenhouse in Kanuma, Tochigi Prefecture.