July 26, 2018

Blutech launches LoRa smart aquaculture solution

Taiwan-based IIoT (industrial IoT) specialist, Blutech introduces the world's first commercialised IIoT service platform integrated with its LoRa LPWAN system to work out a smart aquaculture monitoring solution to help fishing farmers boost fish survival rates.

Blutech's CEO, WF Chen shared, "Our company has helped farmers set up the first smart fishing farm in southern Taiwan with a space of up to 13 hectares with the LoRa LPWAN (low power wide area network) system, which shows a 99.9% accuracy in data transmission following months of non-stop trial operation, significantly helping aquaculture operators reduce unnecessary losses."

The system allows users to keep track of fishing farm data via smartphones, reducing significant manpower management and power consumption costs, waterwheel malfunction rates.

"Of course, big data analysis is also needed to provide smart analysis to better improve aquaculture operations," Chen added.

Due to the lack of data related to weather, bacteria and power supply interruption, fishing farmers usually have very little knowledge on when and what type of fishes to raise.

Monitoring requirements vary according to the different fishes for farming. Hence, monitoring methods must be constantly adjusted to suit the requirements. "All data concerning water, power, air, temperature and vibration must be monitored," Chen explained.

Other sectors, including horticulture and livestock farming, also require the support of IoT, big data analysis and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help enhance production efficiency. Chen indicated that AIoT is another crucial application sector that is in need of great development efforts.

In 2016, research statistics show that global smart aquaculture market scale reached US$500 million. It is expected to have a CAGR of 160% in the coming years and to reach US$1.2 billion by 2022.