The Yamaha name has long been associated with a mixture of motorcycles and musical instruments.
However, what is not usually appreciated is that there are now two distinct companies responsible for each product, although they do share a common heritage.
The larger company is the Yamaha Corporation which is famed for its musical products and electronics.
It started production of motorcycles in 1954 and very soon hived off the division as a separate entity, now known as Yamaha Motor Company.
Yamaha Corporation
The elder company still retains an interest in its smaller offspring, but other than this connection, they are, to all intents and proposes, independent businesses.
The original company first involved itself with robots in 1981 and, after a hesitant start, began producing them in large numbers during the mid-80s.
In general, the machines were confined to manufacturing, but now the company is seeking to move its expertise and experience into the agricultural sector.
Last month Yamaha Corporation joined other companies in investing in Advanced Farm Technologies Inc., a Californian company that is already active in robotics with machines presently harvesting soft fruit in the field.
It claims to have expressions of interest amounting to $70 million lined up from potential customers.
Kubota chips in
The main product is a robot strawberry harvester which operates on raised soil beds created for them to straddle.
Last month, it announced a successful round of fundraising which involved investments from not only the Yamaha Corporation, but also Kubota and other dedicated investment concerns.
The total raised amounted to €25 million and will be used to further develop its soft fruit harvesting systems.
The inclusion of Kubota is notable as the company recently indicated that it is seeking to increase its involvement in agricultural technology.
Yamaha Motor Company
Meanwhile, the younger firm, the Yamaha Motor Company, is taking part in a development programme, which is intended to bring together its present expertise in technology with the capabilities of a software specialist.
Armed with this experience, they will apply themselves to the practical issues of a wine growing business.
The software company is called ‘The Yield’ and it concerns itself primarily with data collection, its management and presentation of information in a format designed to aid the running of vineyards.
Yamaha Motor brings its robotic expertise to the table in the hope, it would appear, of developing the hardware to implement management decisions arrived at by analysis of data.
The Yield Technology Solutions Pty Ltd. (The Yield) announced a new R&D project with global technology giant, Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. partnering with global premium wine company, Treasury Wine Estates, to optimise yield prediction in wine grapes and to improve autonomous crop spraying with the use of robots.
Aeriel pest control
The younger Yamaha also has a long experience in high tech farming, as it developed a remote-controlled helicopter in the 80s at the request of the Japanese government.
The purpose of this tool was to make the spraying of rice crops safer and more efficient, and today, the company boasts that one third of the rice for the domestic market is treated by its aerial platform.
It has also enjoyed great success in Australia where the helicopters, which may fly autonomously, are involved in a diverse range of operations, including weed control, seeding and invasive pest eradication.
Overall strategy
Few details of future plans are given at the time of these announcements, yet is is clear that both companies seek to involve themselves directly in food production to a greater degree than hitherto.
Yamaha Corporation has the expertise in industrial robotics which it is hoping to apply to agricultural operations. After all, travelling along raised beds is no more than moving the machine along the production line, rather than vice versa.
Yamaha Motor Company has already invested $10 million in Robotics Plus from New Zealand, a firm which produces “post-harvest robotics for fruit packing, orchard robotics for harvesting and pollination, and autonomous agricultural vehicles”.
By taking part in the vineyard project, which aims to not only automate the practical field activities but also the management of those operations, they are taking a slightly broader view of the power of digital technology.
What is noticeable is that these efforts are focused on applying technology to high value crops rather than basic foodstuffs.
Quite how fast this knowledge and experience will spill over into main crop growing remains to be seen.