Scalability of crayfish hatcheries through robotic technology

2019年，全球小龙虾产业价值190亿美元。欧洲和英国的进口小龙虾价格在过去8年里上涨了83%，但由于亚洲需求的增加，数量减少了。在小龙虾品种中，红爪小龙虾的市场批发价格最高，但由于缺乏经济上可行的孵卵技术，它的增长显得微不足道。该项目旨在推进机器人技术在水产养殖部门的应用。具体来说，它计划通过设计和制造两个新坦克来提高机器驱动机器人的操作效率。该项目将导致坦克原型的制造，并将在公司现场进行测试。目标是通过利用机器人在收集和分析数据时有效执行重复任务的能力来解锁小龙虾孵化场的可扩展性，从而提高生产率。机器人与新的水箱设计相结合，还将减少商业设施所需的土地空间，提高存活率，减少包括饲料在内的自然资源的浪费，饲料是水产养殖中二氧化碳排放的最大来源。该项目将持续6个月，并将建成首个机器人驱动的小龙虾养殖孵化中心。

The global crayfish industry was worth $19 billion in 2019\. Imported crayfish price to Europe and the UK increased by 83% over 8 years but volumes dwindle due to increased Asian demand. Amongst crayfish species, the redclaw crayfish fetches the highest market wholesale prices but its growth is dwarfed by a lack of economically viable hatchery technology.This project is to advance robotic technologies applied to the aquaculture sector. Specifically, it plans to improve the operational efficiency of a machine-driven robot by designing and manufacturing two new tanks. The project will result in the manufacturing of tank prototypes which will be tested at the company's site. The objective is to unlock scalability of crayfish hatcheries by utilising the robots' capability of performing repeated tasks efficiently while collecting and analysis data, thus improve productivity. The robot coupled with new tank design will also decrease the land space required for a commercial facility, increase survival rates and decrease waste of natural resources including feed, which the biggest source of CO2 emissions in aquaculture.The project will last 6 months and will produce the first robot-driven crayfish breeding and hatchery centre.