UK-China Agritech Challenge: Envirobot An autonomous roving platform for environment, health and welfare monitoring of poultry

中国的家禽业正在快速现代化，但在此过程中，在控制生产设施内的温度和其他关键参数方面遇到了重大问题。目前在中国（以及其他地方）的设施中使用的技术无法实现有效的监控，从而无法优化温度控制或任何其他相关的环境因素。缺乏最佳的饲养条件不仅是鸟类健康和福利问题，而且也是中国家禽生产力损失的重要原因。在次优条件下饲养鸡意味着，与提供更优环境相比，这些鸡需要更多的饲料。即使是很小的饲料减少也会对生产率产生显著的积极影响。更好的条件也将降低鸟类患病和死亡的风险。因此，对于在这一领域拥有专业知识的英国组织来说，与中国合作伙伴合作开发适当的解决方案是一个重要的机会，这将特别影响中国家禽业的生产力。此外，这也将是解决目前中国家禽业声誉不佳的一个步骤。开发的解决方案将适用于世界其他国家，也可能用于其他畜牧业。因此，这对英国和中国来说都是一个极好的出口机会。目前，全世界的家禽设施都是用几个有线传感器来构建的，这些传感器给出了禽舍中的基本温度分布。所提出的是一个自主机器人在设施周围移动，不断捕获数据，因为它四处移动，并采样在设施内的各种高度的环境，从最低的笼子到最高的笼子。由于机器人的导航知识，它将能够绘制数据，提供鸟类所暴露的所有参数的三维视图，包括温度、湿度、空气速度、二氧化碳，并且还将配备一个机载摄像头，以便对鸟类的状况和潜在的鸟类进行视觉评估。此外，基于当前原型“电子鼻”的传感器系统的开发将首次捕获有关疾病存在的数据。将收集到的所有数据结合起来，将允许进行评估，不仅在鸟类出现症状之前发现疾病，但通过交叉参考所有的环境数据，将允许预测模型的发生，并可能首次允许中国家禽养殖户防止他们的家禽生病，该项目的一个关键合作伙伴是英国的Applied Poultry，该公司已经分析了来自全球家禽企业的数据，并将其转化为更好的知识和信息。一旦该项目完成，目标是继续与Applied Poultry合作进行一些数据分析。机器人技术支持将来自Ross Robotics。中国农民将拥有一个仪表板，用于对其设施进行实时真实的时间分析，一些知识共享将允许学术合作伙伴（英国和/或中国）继续参与并从该项目中获取未来的信息。由于该提案是用于监测笼中鸟类，我们认为没有理由认为开发的机器人/传感器/仪表板/数据分析不适合全球笼中蛋鸡，尽管可能需要不同的疾病传感器阵列

The poultry industry in China is modernising at a fast pace, but in the process is encountering significant problems with controlling temperature and other key parameters within their production facilities. The technologies currently used in facilities in China (and often elsewhere) do not enable effective monitoring and thus optimisation of temperature control or any other relevant environmental factors. Lack of optimal housing conditions is not only a bird health and welfare issue, but also a source of very significant cost to the Chinese poultry in terms of lost productivity. Rearing chickens in sub-optimal conditions means that weight for weight, such birds require more feed than if provided with a more optimal environment. Even a very small reduction in feed can have a significant positive effect on productivity. Better conditions will also reduce the risk of disease and mortality to the birds. A significant opportunity therefore exists for UK based organisations, with expertise in this field, to collaborate with Chinese partners to develop an appropriate solution, which will in particular effect an increase in productivity within the poultry sector in China. Furthermore, it will also be a step forward in addressing the currently poor reputation of the poultry industry in China. The solution developed will have applicability in other countries around the world and may also have a use in other livestock industries. Therefore, it is an example of an excellent export opportunity for both the UK and China. Currently poultry facilities worldwide are constructed with a few wired sensors giving a basic temperature profile in the poultry house. What is proposed is for an autonomous robot to move around the facility capturing data continuously as it moves around and sampling the environment at various heights within the facility, from the lowest cage to the highest cage. Due to the navigation knowledge of the robot it will be able to plot the data giving a 3 dimensional view of all the parameters that the birds are exposed to, to include temperature, humidity, air velocity, CO2 and will also have an on-board camera to allow visual assessment of the conditions and potentially the birds. In addition the development of a sensor system which is based on a current prototype "e-nose" will allow data regarding the presence of disease to be captured for the first time.Combining all the data gathered will allow assessments to be carried out that not only detects diseases before symptoms are seen in the birds, but by cross referencing all the environmental data will allow for predictive modelling to occur and potentially for the first time allow the Chinese poultry farmer to prevent sickness in their birds, improving bird welfare, bird performance and go some way to re-building consumer confidence in the product.One key partner in the business case for this project is Applied Poultry in the UK, which already analyse data from global poultry businesses and turning it into better knowledge and information.Once the project is completed the aim is for collaboration to continue with some data analysis being conducted by Applied Poultry. Robotics support will come from Ross Robotics. The Chinese farmers will have a dashboard for live real time analysis of their facilities and some knowledge sharing will allow the academic partners (UK and/or China) to remain involved and gaining future information from such a project.As this proposal is for monitoring birds in cages we can see no reason why the developed robots/sensors/dashboard/data analysis cannot be considered appropriate for caged laying hens globally, although a different disease sensor arrays may be required