A smart cityスマートシティ is a way of building a city in which IoT and ICT link up systems such as transport, energy and disaster prevention through data, making the whole city more livable and efficient.
Smart city (example fields)
Traffic: adjust signals to ease congestion
Energy: share power within the area
Disaster prevention: monitor river levels around the clock
Administration: accept applications online
Data on how people move and how power is used, gathered by sensors and cameras around the city, is analyzed in one place and fed into traffic light control and power distribution. Local governments and companies in many areas pursue it as a way to keep public services running where staff and budgets are limited.
How to rememberIn this unit, the word that follows "smart" (city, factory, agriculture) names the place where IoT is put to work.
Exam points
ExamA smart cityスマートシティ works at the scale of a town or region and handles systems from several fields together.
A smart factoryスマートファクトリー is a factory whose equipment and sensors are connected to a network through IoT, so that the collected data can be used to optimize production.
Collect: sensors measure equipment status
Analyze: look for signs of trouble in the data
Act: adjust maintenance and production plans
The results go back to the shop floor: equipment is serviced before it stops, or the production order is rearranged.
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Equipment status is made visible, and signs of failure are caught from changes in vibration or temperature so machines can be serviced before they stop (predictive maintenance予知保全). Germany's Industry 4.0 initiative is a plan built around making factories smart in this way.
AnalogyA factory where every machine wears a health monitor, and the doctor steps in before anything goes wrong.
How to rememberThe fact- in factory comes from the Latin for "make", so the word means a place where things are made.
Exam points
Mix-upA smart factoryスマートファクトリー is the arrangement that links a whole plant through data, while an industrial robot産業用ロボット is one machine inside it that carries out the work.
Machine visionマシンビジョン is technology in which a computer processes camera images to inspect products and recognize positions automatically.
Capture (lighting and camera)
Image processing (read scratches and size)
Judge (good or defective)
Sort (remove defective items)
Items judged defective are taken off the line.
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What it reads depends on the job, such as scratches, chips, size deviations, printed text, or the position and orientation of parts. It is faster than inspection by eye and less likely to miss defects through fatigue, which makes it a good fit for checking every item on a production line.
AnalogyIt replaces the eyes of an inspector who sits by the line all day comparing every product, using a camera and a computer instead.
How to rememberRead it as "the machine's eyes" and its role is clear.
An industrial robot産業用ロボット is a machine that repeats factory work such as welding, painting, assembly and moving parts automatically, following a program.
Motors drive the joints of its arm, so it can take on work that is heavy or dangerous for people, such as lifting heavy loads or working near high heat. Because it repeats the motions it was taught with precision, it keeps the finished results consistent.
AnalogyA worker's arm that never tires, repeating the same motion exactly, day and night.
How to remember"Industrial" marks it as factory equipment, setting it apart from service robots such as robot vacuums at home.
Smart agricultureスマート農業 is farming that uses IoT sensors, AI, robots and similar technology to reduce labor and raise crop quality and yield.
Sensors measure temperature, humidity and soil moisture in fields and greenhouses, and watering and ventilation run automatically according to those readings. Self-driving tractors and crop monitoring from above are also used, and these tools help make up for an aging farm workforce and labor shortages.
AnalogyA record-keeping farmhand who reads the field in numbers instead of gut feeling, and hands out only as much water and fertilizer as is needed.
Exam points
Mix-upSmart agricultureスマート農業 refers to the whole set of efforts in farming, while a droneドローン is one of the devices used there to spray pesticides and watch how crops grow.
HEMS is a management system that measures a household's electricity and other energy, shows how it is used, and controls appliances and storage batteries so that nothing is wasted.
Measure: track usage per appliance
Visualize: show usage on a screen
Control: adjust appliances and batteries automatically
Output is held back when demand peaks, and daytime solar power is stored in the battery.
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A meter that measures usage automatically and sends it to the supplier over a network is called a smart meterスマートメーター, and HEMS can take in its readings too. Appliances and batteries are controlled over the home network.
AnalogyA household manager who keeps one ledger of all the power coming and going, and automatically nudges power-hungry appliances to cut back.
How to rememberThe H in HEMS stands for Home. Swap in B (Building) for BEMS or F (Factory) for FEMS, and the first letter tells you what is being managed.
A droneドローン is an unmanned aircraft that flies by remote control or automatic control with no one on board.
Field
Example uses
Agriculture
Spraying pesticides, watching crop growth
Logistics
Delivering parcels to remote islands and mountain areas
Infrastructure inspection
Photographing bridges and power lines up close
Disaster response
Checking disaster areas from the air
It carries cameras and sensors and can fly a set route on its own while tracking its position by GPS. Because it can quickly survey wide areas and high places that are hard for people to reach, it is used in many fields, including farming, logistics and equipment inspection.
AnalogyEyes and hands that need no ladder or scaffolding, flying anywhere to take a look from above.
How to rememberIn English a drone is a male bee, and the word also means a low humming sound. Picture the buzzing aircraft and the name sticks.
Key points
Terms tied to cities, factories, farms and homes can be sorted by where IoT is applied, while dronesドローン are treated separately as devices used across many fields rather than in one place.
Both factory and home systems follow the same flow: collect data measured by sensors, make it visible, and use the results for equipment maintenance or appliance control.
Making cities and farming smart is pursued as a way to use data and automation to cover services and work that labor shortages and an aging population make hard to sustain.