KARIYA, JAPAN, Apr 24, 2025 - (JCN Newswire) - DENSO CORPORATION and DELPHY GROEP BV have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) aimed at developing and promoting data-driven smart horticulture(1).
From left: DELPHY GROEP BV Managing Partner Horticulture Aad van den Berg,DENSO CORPORATION Food Value Chain Business Development Division Executive Officer Yasushi Mukai
Recently, the instability of agricultural production caused by factors such as climate change and the decline in the farming population, as well as the resulting food shortages has become pressing issues. Under these circumstances, there is a global need to enable anyone a stable, sustainable agricultural production, anytime, in any environment.
DENSO has been engaged in the horticultural business by leveraging technology developed in the automotive sector. By developing environmental control systems and greenhouses for horticulture, as well as harvest robots(2), DENSO has continuously enhanced its sensing capabilities in greenhouse IoT and harvesting processes.
DELPHY is a leading cultivation consulting company, staffed by numerous experts with extensive, long-term experience in cultivation support. The cultivation management software QMS(3) provided by DELPHY inputs climate data such as temperature and sunlight, along with crop data including fruit counts and weights, into a mathematical plant growth model. By using these data to plan cultivation, DELPHY has been assisting producers in achieving stable, long-term cultivation.
By drawing on their respective strengths, DENSO and DELPHY have signed the MOU to begin exploring data-driven smart horticulture, which optimizes the cultivation environment and methods by consolidating and utilizing data essential for crop growth. The main initiatives are as follows:
■ System Development to Achieve Stable Planned Cultivation
By automatically collecting crop data—which growers have until now observed visually or measured by hand—through DENSO’s sensing technology, accuracy is enhanced. Furthermore, by entering this crop data into DELPHY ’s QMS, it becomes possible to improve the precision of cultivation planning. Subsequently, by leveraging that cultivation plan to control the greenhouse environment and provide instructions to workers or automated equipment, stable and planned cultivation can be achieved. The two companies will explore the development of a series of systems to realize this stable, planned cultivation.
■ System Development for Cultivation Simulation under a Digital Twin(4) Environment
By using DENSO’s digital twin technology, it becomes possible to recreate in three-dimensional data the plant structure that would result from cultivating based on the cultivation plan devised by DELPHY’s QMS. This enables analysis and prediction of crop growth in a digital twin environment even before actual cultivation takes place. Both companies will explore the development of a series of systems to realize these cultivation simulations.
Based on the MOU, DENSO and DELPHY aim to interlink these two systems to realize data-driven smart horticulture by 2030. Together, the two companies will accelerate initiatives worldwide to achieve stable and sustainable agriculture.
DENSO CORPORATION
Food Value Chain Business Development Division
Executive Officer
Yasushi Mukai
Through our collaboration with DELPHY, we have taken a new step toward realizing innovative cultivation solutions that enable planned production by integrating our sensing and digital technologies with DELPHY’s cultivation know-how. We will continue to challenge ourselves to deliver safe and reliable food anytime, anywhere, and for everyone.
DELPHY GROEP BV
Managing Partner Horticulture
Aad van den Berg
The road to autonomous crop cultivation requires new technologies for horticulture. On this road to economically sustainable horticulture, technologies from the automotive industry will make a major contribution. By integrating DENSO technologies with DELPHY's QMS Cultivation Management software, we can continue to contribute to this development. We make Growers better!
*1Data-driven smart horticulture is a method of collecting horticultural data using sensors and IoT devices and optimizing the cultivation process through AI and big data analysis.
*2 Please refer to the following URL for past announcements regarding the fully automated harvest robot Artemy®.https://www.denso.com/global/en/news/newsroom/2024/20240513-g01/
*3 Please refer to the following URL for more information about the QMS.https://delphy.nl/en/services/data-driven-crop-management/
*4 A Digital Twin is a technology that involves creating a “twin” within a digital virtual space using data gathered from the real world, enabling a wide range of simulations.
About DENSO CORPORATION
DENSO is a global automotive parts manufacturer that provides advanced automotive technologies, systems, and products. Leveraging the core technologies it has developed through its experience in automotive components, DENSO is expanding the scope of its value offerings to include factory automation, food distribution, agriculture (Ag Tech), and more. Among these, in order to deliver safe and reliable food—essential to people’s daily lives—DENSO positions agriculture as an important business domain. Through automated harvesting using robots equipped with sensing technologies and through digital-based cultivation environment control, DENSO is working toward the industrialization of farms.https://www.denso.com/global/en/
About DELPHY GROEP BV
DELPHY is part of Royal Peterson Control Union Group. The Group provides TIC activities and helps businesses navigate complex challenges and drive long-term success in over 80 countries Within the Group DELPHY provides worldwide leading in expertise for food & flowers by knowledge driven services in agriculture and horticulture as research & development, consultancy and projects, dedicated to advancing global food & flower production.https://delphy.nl/