The Rural Development Administration (RDA, Commissioner Lee Seung-don) will host the ‘Future Forum on AI-Based Post-Harvest Processing Innovation Technology’ on Aug. 31 at the international conference hall of its headquarters, with about 100 experts from universities, government-funded research institutes and industry in attendance. The event seeks research directions for transforming the entire post-harvest chain — sorting, processing, packaging and logistics — into data-driven intelligent processes.
 [코리안투데이] 인공지능 AI 접목한 수확후공정의 미래 모색한다 © 장형임 기자 |
Agricultural products become marketable goods only after they pass through sorting, processing, packaging and distribution once harvested. Yet much of this process still relies on the experience and skilled hands of workers, and observers have steadily pointed out that this limits gains in productivity and added value. The RDA’s forum is being held with the aim of finding a path toward ‘intelligent processing’ by grafting artificial intelligence, data and automation technologies onto such post-harvest operations.
The forum focuses on connecting ‘future technology and research innovation’ with ‘farmers and on-site application.’ Taking the conversion of skilled techniques into data as its starting point, it examines the direction of technological progress leading from artificial intelligence and physical AI to autonomous processing and smart logistics. Physical AI refers to technology that links the results of an AI’s perception and judgment of real-world situations to the actions of physical systems such as robots. The forum also discusses ways to identify the technologies actually demanded on the ground by young farmers and agricultural corporations, and to connect the public technologies developed by research institutions to field demonstration and technology transfer.
 [코리안투데이] 인공지능 AI 접목한 수확후공정의 미래 모색한다 © 장형임 기자 |
Session 1 proceeds under the theme ‘Future Technologies for Digital Transformation (DX) in Post-Harvest Processing of Agri-Food.’ Lim Jong-guk, a division head at the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, will present on the future and research direction of the Postharvest Management Engineering Division in the era of post-harvest processing automation, while Lee Kwang-hee, principal researcher at the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, will present on AI- and robot-based automation technology for peeling irregularly shaped raw materials. Kim Chae-ju, CEO of Saengmyeong-gwa-gisul Co., will then present on enhancing information generation in the produce-sorting systems of smart Agricultural Products Processing Centers (APCs), and Professor Son Hyung-il of Chonnam National University will introduce physical AI based on multimodal language-action models in the agri-food field. A multimodal language-action model is an AI model that understands various forms of information such as video and language and links them to actual actions. In particular, the session will focus on converting the experience and skilled techniques of workers at agri-food processing sites and produce processing centers into data, and grafting this onto AI-based analysis and judgment technologies and automation systems to shift processes that once depended on human experience into data-driven ones.
 [코리안투데이] 인공지능 AI 접목한 수확후공정의 미래 모색한다 © 장형임 기자 |
Session 2 is held under the theme ‘Innovation in Intelligent Post-Harvest Processing and Future Strategy.’ KT committee member Lee Sang-ho will present physical AI solutions for smart produce processing centers, Yang Gyeon-mo, leader of the Agricultural Food AI Research Team at the Korea Institute of Robotics and Technology Convergence, will present robotics and autonomous-driving technology for unmanned operations, and Professor Kim Kyeong-i of Inje University will present trends in autonomous mobile robot (AMR) application technologies for smart food logistics.
 [코리안투데이] 인공지능 AI 접목한 수확후공정의 미래 모색한다 © 장형임 기자 |
A comprehensive discussion then follows under the theme ‘The Future of Post-Harvest Processing in the 2045 AI Era and National R&D Strategy.’ Alongside experts from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the Korea Food Research Institute and industry, a representative of young farmers will take part in a wide-ranging exchange of views spanning future technology and policy direction, the technologies needed in the field, and approaches to demonstration and transfer of public technology. Through this, participants will seek to build a post-harvest processing technology ecosystem that runs from ‘future technology development to field demonstration, technology transfer and farmer use,’ and explore the potential for farmers to create added value in the production, processing and commercialization stages.
The event runs from 1 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. that day and is organized by the Postharvest Management Engineering Division of the Agricultural Engineering Department at the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences. The RDA plans to use the forum as an opportunity to broaden its research scope toward intelligent processing systems that converge AI, data and automation, and to identify field-applicable technologies and national R&D projects through industry-academia-research collaboration.
 [코리안투데이] 인공지능 AI 접목한 수확후공정의 미래 모색한다 © 장형임 기자 |
Seong Je-hun, director of the RDA’s National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, said, ‘Post-harvest processing, too, is now advancing into intelligent processing that analyzes and makes judgments about operations by grafting on artificial intelligence.’ He added, ‘At this forum we will work with experts from academia, industry and research to give concrete shape to the direction of future post-harvest processing technology, and identify new R&D projects that can be put to practical use in the agri-food industry.’
지역 홍보대사 신청 기자양성과정 신청 코리안투데이 지부장 신청 코리안투데이 인천강화코리안브랜드대상 신청 최고경영인대상 신청 소비자만족도대상 신청
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