Cablebot - the cable mounted poultry welfare monitoring robot

CableBot是Pondus、哈珀亚当斯大学（Harper Adams University）和Hudson and Sanders之间的一个合作项目，旨在开发一种自动化的人工智能牲畜监测系统，该系统使用低成本的电缆漫游机器人。其目的是改善动物健康、性能和行为监测，提供生活环境控制，改进记录保存，并生成管理信息。它将解决劳动力供应减少的关键问题，以及改善畜牧生产系统中动物健康和福利的挑战，方法是提供对畜舍条件的现场控制和信息，减少工作人员目视监测牲畜行为和作出环境控制调整的需要。虽然最终目的是监测所有类型的牲畜，但最初的重点将放在肉用家禽上。该项目将通过行为观察、死鸟定位、视觉体重计算以及饮水和喂食行为来改善集养肉鸡的管理。这将使用基于摄像机算法的电缆安装机器人摄像机平台来执行，从而创建“Cablebot”全天候监控家禽环境，Hudson和Sanders已经完成了这一任务。通过加强数据收集和管理，有可能改进疾病的早期发现，从而有可能减少死亡率、痛苦和抗微生物药物的使用。不断改进观察，特别是对饮食行为的观察，可以提高鸟类的饲料效率——减少浪费，提高性能，从而减少肉鸡对环境的影响。Pondus与H&S和HAU合作，旨在开发一种具有成本效益的机器人安装摄像头解决方案，以监测肉鸡的健康、体重和行为。试验将在H&S管理的农场进行，Pondus将创建视觉算法并观察选定的行为，HAU将创建电缆安装的机器人平台。

CableBot is a collaborative project between Pondus, Harper Adams University, and Hudson and Sanders to develop an automated AI livestock monitoring system using low-cost cable mounted roaming robots. Its aim is to improve animal health, performance, and behaviour monitoring, provide live environmental control, improve record keeping, and generate management information. It will address the key issue of diminishing labour availability and the challenge of improving animal health and welfare in livestock production systems, by providing live control of, and information about, conditions in animal buildings, reducing the need for staff to visually monitor livestock behaviours and make environmental control adjustments. Whilst the ultimate intention is to monitor all types of livestock, the initial focus will be on broiler poultry.This project will improve the management of intensively raised broiler chickens through behavioural observation, dead bird location, visual weight calculations and drinker and feeder behaviour. This will be performed using camera based algorithms from a cable mounted robot camera platform, thus creating the 'Cablebot'24/7 monitoring of poultry environments is already performed by Hudson and Sanders. With increased data collection and management it is possible to improve early disease detection and therefore potentially reduce mortality, suffering and antimicrobial use. Continued improvement of observations, particularly that of eating and drinking behaviour can improve the feed efficiency of the birds - reducing waste, improving performance and therefore decreasing the environmental impact of the broiler chickens.Pondus, working with H&S and HAU, aims to develop a cost-effective robot mounted camera solution to monitor broiler chicken health, weight and behaviour. The trials will be hosted on H&S managed farms with Pondus creating the visual algorithms and observing selected behaviours and HAU will be creating the cable mounted robot platform.