RoboChick - An autonomous platform for data collection in poultry buildings

Abstract

The development of a small vehicle for use in broiler chicken buildings to autonomously navigate around the building, collecting high resolution data on the environment at chicken level.

Description

The project looked at the feasibility of using a small autonomous vehicle to collect high resolution data within broiler chicken buildings to aid management.

The project developed a small vehicle equiped with sensors to collect environmental data (temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide level, air flow velocity, and light spectrum), for every 1m of vehicle travel, at approximately bird head height. It also investigate if there was any animal welfare issue of using a autonomous vehicle around the birds.