Advanced Technologies for Large-Scale Plant Factories—Integration of Industrial and Systems Engineering Approach in Controlled Environment Crop Production

AbstractStudying large-scale collaborative systems engineering projects across teams with differing intellectual property clearances, or healthcare solutions where sensitive patient data needs to be partially shared, or similar multi-user information systems over databases, all boils down to a common mathematical framework. Updateable views (lenses) and more generally bidirectional transformations are abstractions to study the challenge of exchanging information between participants with different read access privileges. The view provided to each participant must be different due to access control or other limitations, yet also consistent in a certain sense, to enable collaboration towards common goals. A collaboration system must apply bidirectional synchronization to ensure that after a participant modifies their view, the views of other participants are updated so that they are consistent again. While bidirectional transformations (synchronizations) have been extensively studied, there are new challenges that are unique to the multidirectional case. If complex consistency constraints have to be maintained, synchronizations that work fine in isolation may not compose well. We demonstrate and characterize a failure mode of the emergent behaviour, where a consistency restoration mechanism undoes the work of other participants. On the other end of the spectrum, we study the case where synchronizations work especially well together: we characterize very well-behaved multidirectional transformations, a non-trivial generalization from the bidirectional case. For the former challenge, we introduce a novel concept of controllability, while for the latter one, we propose a novel formal notion of faithful decomposition. Additionally, the paper proposes several novel properties of multidirectional transformations.

Download Full-text

Opportunities and limits of controlled-environment plant phenotyping for climate response traits

Theoretical and Applied Genetics ◽

10.1007/s00122-021-03892-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Anna Langstroff ◽

Marc C. Heuermann ◽

Andreas Stahl ◽

Astrid Junker

Keyword(s):

Crop Production ◽

Field Trials ◽

Plant Phenotyping ◽

Controlled Environment ◽

Climate Response ◽

Negative Effects ◽

Phenotypic Data ◽

Non Invasive ◽

Controlled Environments ◽

Response Traits

AbstractRising temperatures and changing precipitation patterns will affect agricultural production substantially, exposing crops to extended and more intense periods of stress. Therefore, breeding of varieties adapted to the constantly changing conditions is pivotal to enable a quantitatively and qualitatively adequate crop production despite the negative effects of climate change. As it is not yet possible to select for adaptation to future climate scenarios in the field, simulations of future conditions in controlled-environment (CE) phenotyping facilities contribute to the understanding of the plant response to special stress conditions and help breeders to select ideal genotypes which cope with future conditions. CE phenotyping facilities enable the collection of traits that are not easy to measure under field conditions and the assessment of a plant‘s phenotype under repeatable, clearly defined environmental conditions using automated, non-invasive, high-throughput methods. However, extrapolation and translation of results obtained under controlled environments to field environments is ambiguous. This review outlines the opportunities and challenges of phenotyping approaches under controlled environments complementary to conventional field trials. It gives an overview on general principles and introduces existing phenotyping facilities that take up the challenge of obtaining reliable and robust phenotypic data on climate response traits to support breeding of climate-adapted crops.

Download Full-text

Comparative Analysis of the Life-Cycle Cost of Robot Substitution: A Case of Automobile Welding Production in China

Symmetry ◽

10.3390/sym13020226 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 226

Author(s):

Xuyang Zhao ◽

Cisheng Wu ◽

Duanyong Liu

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Systems Engineering ◽

Life Cycle Cost ◽

Manufacturing Systems ◽

Large Scale ◽

Cost Allocation ◽

Industrial Robot ◽

Case Analysis ◽

Industrial Robots ◽

Analysis Model

Within the context of the large-scale application of industrial robots, methods of analyzing the life-cycle cost (LCC) of industrial robot production have shown considerable developments, but there remains a lack of methods that allow for the examination of robot substitution. Taking inspiration from the symmetry philosophy in manufacturing systems engineering, this article further establishes a comparative LCC analysis model to compare the LCC of the industrial robot production with traditional production at the same time. This model introduces intangible costs (covering idle loss, efficiency loss and defect loss) to supplement the actual costs and comprehensively uses various methods for cost allocation and variable estimation to conduct total cost and the cost efficiency analysis, together with hierarchical decomposition and dynamic comparison. To demonstrate the model, an investigation of a Chinese automobile manufacturer is provided to compare the LCC of welding robot production with that of manual welding production; methods of case analysis and simulation are combined, and a thorough comparison is done with related existing works to show the validity of this framework. In accordance with this study, a simple template is developed to support the decision-making analysis of the application and cost management of industrial robots. In addition, the case analysis and simulations can provide references for enterprises in emerging markets in relation to robot substitution.

Download Full-text

Agricultural Technical Efficiency of Smallholder Farmers in Ethiopia: A Stochastic Frontier Approach

Land ◽

10.3390/land10030246 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 246

Author(s):

Markose Chekol Zewdie ◽

Michele Moretti ◽

Daregot Berihun Tenessa ◽

Zemen Ayalew Ayele ◽

Jan Nyssen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Technical Efficiency ◽

Crop Production ◽

Large Scale ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Smallholder Farmers ◽

Stochastic Frontier ◽

Crop Productivity ◽

Small Scale ◽

Stochastic Frontier Approach ◽

Small Scale Irrigation

In the past decade, to improve crop production and productivity, Ethiopia has embarked on an ambitious irrigation farming expansion program and has introduced new large- and small-scale irrigation initiatives. However, in Ethiopia, poverty remains a challenge, and crop productivity per unit area of land is very low. Literature on the technical efficiency (TE) of large-scale and small-scale irrigation user farmers as compared to the non-user farmers in Ethiopia is also limited. Investigating smallholder farmers’ TE level and its principal determinants is very important to increase crop production and productivity and to improve smallholder farmers’ livelihood and food security. Using 1026 household-level cross-section data, this study adopts a technology flexible stochastic frontier approach to examine agricultural TE of large-scale irrigation users, small-scale irrigation users and non-user farmers in Ethiopia. The results indicate that, due to poor extension services and old-style agronomic practices, the mean TE of farmers is very low (44.33%), implying that there is a wider room for increasing crop production in the study areas through increasing the TE of smallholder farmers without additional investment in novel agricultural technologies. Results also show that large-scale irrigation user farmers (21.05%) are less technically efficient than small-scale irrigation user farmers (60.29%). However, improving irrigation infrastructure shifts the frontier up and has a positive impact on smallholder farmers’ output.

Download Full-text

Predicting Shifts in Land Suitability for Maize Cultivation Worldwide Due to Climate Change: A Modeling Approach

Land ◽

10.3390/land10030295 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 295

Author(s):

Yuan Gao ◽

Anyu Zhang ◽

Yaojie Yue ◽

Jing’ai Wang ◽

Peng Su

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Crop Production ◽

Large Scale ◽

Land Suitability ◽

Large Scale Assessment ◽

Scale Assessment ◽

Maize Cultivation ◽

Large Scale Screening ◽

Selection Of

Suitable land is an important prerequisite for crop cultivation and, given the prospect of climate change, it is essential to assess such suitability to minimize crop production risks and to ensure food security. Although a variety of methods to assess the suitability are available, a comprehensive, objective, and large-scale screening of environmental variables that influence the results—and therefore their accuracy—of these methods has rarely been explored. An approach to the selection of such variables is proposed and the criteria established for large-scale assessment of land, based on big data, for its suitability to maize (Zea mays L.) cultivation as a case study. The predicted suitability matched the past distribution of maize with an overall accuracy of 79% and a Kappa coefficient of 0.72. The land suitability for maize is likely to decrease markedly at low latitudes and even at mid latitudes. The total area suitable for maize globally and in most major maize-producing countries will decrease, the decrease being particularly steep in those regions optimally suited for maize at present. Compared with earlier research, the method proposed in the present paper is simple yet objective, comprehensive, and reliable for large-scale assessment. The findings of the study highlight the necessity of adopting relevant strategies to cope with the adverse impacts of climate change.

Download Full-text

China’s Investments in Germany and the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Intereconomics ◽

10.1007/s10272-021-0962-0 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 56 (2) ◽

pp. 113-119

Author(s):

Xinming Xia ◽

Wan-Hsin Liu

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Know How ◽

Advanced Technologies ◽

The Future ◽

Potential Impact ◽

Chinese State ◽

The Impact ◽

Gain Access ◽

Over Time

AbstractThis paper analyses how China’s investments in Germany have developed over time and the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in this regard, based on four different datasets, including our own survey in mid-2020. Our analysis shows that Germany is currently one of the most attractive investment destinations for Chinese investors. Chinese state-owned enterprises have played an important role as investors in Germany — particularly in large-scale projects. The COVID-19 pandemic has had some negative but rather temporary effects on Chinese investments in Germany. Germany is expected to stay attractive to Chinese investors who seek to gain access to advanced technologies and know-how in the future.

Download Full-text