Award details

ISCF WAVE 1 AGRI TECH: Robochick: an automonous platform for data-collection in poultry sheds

Reference	BB/R021732/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Mr David Clare
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	Harper Adams University
Department	Engineering
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	85,851
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/01/2018
End date	31/03/2019
Duration	15 months

Abstract

Poultry meat birds are bred for high muscle gain but require very careful husbandry. Current poultry monitoring technologies operate at flock level and do not provide high resolution data collection and analytics required by modern efficient poultry producers to make significant performance gains. RoboChick proposes a multi-functional robotic system capable of collecting data autonomously within a poultry shed to target point-of-need/point-of-care management. This feasibility project is multi-disciplinary, bringing together the animal welfare and ethology expertise of the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), the livestock-oriented engineering expertise of Harper Adams University (HAU), the innovative robotic engineering skills of Ross Robotics (RRL), and commercial poultry management skills of Applied Poultry Ltd (APL). The project will integrate these skills to investigate the feasibility and specify a highly functional robotic system for poultry production monitoring and management.

Summary

The overall objective of this project is to demonstrate the feasibility of a mobile robotic system for data collection in commercial poultry sheds. The technical approach is to first establish the functional specifications of the system for animal welfare-friendly deployment, then to adapt the Ross Robotics Ltd (RRL) modular robotic platform such that it is capable of accurate autonomous navigation and environmental sensing in a populated shed. A select range of sensors will be calibrated and integrated into a multi-sensor module to fuse different environmental parameters into indices of microclimate quality (both aerial and litter condition). Finally we will evaluate the integrated mobile data-collection system in a commercial setting against key production indicators and identify correlations that should exist with other welfare sensing systems, e.g. Fancom Eyenamic. This technical approach follows a similar modus operandi as recent EU PLF projects that use the "living lab" methodology. The Applied Poultry Ltd (APL) commercial facilities represents the living lab in this feasibility study. The project will run through the following work packages: WP1: Bird-robot interaction study. A scientific study will be carried out using facilities at the RVC to define the link between the robot operating parameters and welfare indicators including: vocalisations level; startle response (distance moved, jumping/wing flapping); frustration and vigilance (reluctance to move, head shaking); latency to return to normal behaviour. This essential work will run from M1-M7. In M7 this WP will deliver a report outlining the methodology and functional specifications for the robot during commercial deployment. This delivery also forms the first milestone of the project; WP2: Adaptation of physical platform and sensor integration. During this WP RRL's mobile robotic modular platform will be optimised for operation within a poultry shed. This will include the evaluation of approaches for route-planning and dynamic obstacle avoidance as well as sensor module design and integration. Two research prototypes will be available, one at the start of the project for the bird-robot interaction studies and one by M10 for commercial trials. This latter deliverable forms the second milestone of the project; WP3: Microclimate multi-sensor development. A key objective is to develop an environmental measurement system capable of accurately evaluating the microclimate quality in the bird occupied zone. After a comprehensive horizon scanning review of animal sensing, environmental sensors are to be evaluated for accuracy, response, drift, price-point and physical robustness. Sensors will include temperature, humidity and anemometry, particle counters for dust measurement and sensors for CO2, NH3 and VOC measurement. Initial investigations into birds' physical condition will be carried using an IRT-based sensing approach. This WP will deliver a state-of-the-art review and functional specifications for sensor module integration; WP4: Commercial impact and Feasibility Findings. From M10 to M15, a scientific study will be carried out on the impact of the robot on commercial production using APL's poultry sheds. The operation of the robot within the shed will be monitored by a skilled stockman using a ceiling-based vision monitoring system. The impact of the robot will be assessed against key production variables (e.g. % mortality, % culled, live-weight trend, FCR, EPEF). The data from the robot will be correlated with data from Eyenamic (Fancom bv) and the stockman's expert viewpoint. An assessment of RoboChick's data value measured against the system's capacity and constraints will be conducted and a commercial evaluation report (deliverable); WP5: Business Case study. The deliverables are an exploitation roadmap document, an early stage exploitation report, and a report on the economics of the final envisaged system. A dissemination event will be held at HAU.

Impact Summary

1) The robotic platform's architecture is based on open source software and it is the project consortium's intention to permit future development through open source licencing agreements. This will facilitate collaboration and co-involvement between the RVC, HAU and other UK Universities and Research Organisations in the future development of the platform. 2) The National Centre for Precision Farming (NCPF), which has its home at HAU, has a large Knowledge Transfer (KT) programme in which RoboChick will be included. 3) The public description of the project will be included in the NCPF research project presentation which is broadcast daily in the Agricultural Engineering Innovation Centre at HAU. 4) Attendance at The Pig and Poultry Fair in May 2017, which is the UK's only dedicated pig and poultry industry event, where the focus will be promoting the RoboChick project to end-users. 5) Attendance at the International Conference of Agricultural Engineering in Aarhus, Denmark, in June 2016, which is focussed on robotics, automation, environment and Food Safety. This event will provide an opportunity for the PI and PDRA to network with experts and identify partners for the follow-on industrial research stage project. 6) A Stakeholder Event will be held at RVC, HAU or at APL (subject to crop timing, in the last month of the project. This event will be used to gather the consortium's network of contacts in one place and as such will be a consolidation of all the other KT and networking activities this far. The audience will include Universities and Research Organisations, poultry farmers, other farmers interested in Precision Livestock Farming solutions, poultry environment solutions companies, and the opportunity to seek additional partners for a follow-on project. 7) Publication of the commercially non-sensitive project results on HAU's KT (Openfields) and RVC websites.

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Animal Health, Animal Welfare
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Wave 1 - Agri Tech (ISCF AT) [2017]
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

Associated awards:

BB/R021589/1 ISCF WAVE 1 AGRI TECH: Robochick: an automonous platform for data-collection in poultry sheds

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