Author：Yao-Chuan Tsai/ Associate Professor, Department of Bio-industrial Mechatronics Engineering, National Chung Hsing University
Jih-Hua Shen/ Research Assistant, Department of Bio-industrial Mechatronics Engineering, National Chung Hsing University
Chia-Wei Su/ Research Assistant, Department of Bio-industrial Mechatronics Engineering, National Chung Hsing University

I. Introduction

The poultry industry is a key component of the agricultural economy in Taiwan. Taiwan’s broiler and native chicken industries always achieve outstanding accomplishments in providing high-quality meat and egg products. However, with the increasing public concern about food safety and animal welfare, a smarter and more efficient management method is urgently needed. To optimize the breeding environment, improve poultry health, and eliminate contact between wild birds and poultry, poultry houses in Taiwan have increasingly shifted towards non-open and closed breeding methods. In order to observe whether the poultry are diseased and facilitate the poultry to move around to improve their health, breeders frequently enter and exit poultry houses to observe and disturb the poultry to let them move around. However, the frequent entry and exit of the breeders into the poultry houses is also one of the risks for virus transmission. Our team proposes a light-beam chicken flock disturbing system, which uses light beams to disturb and stimulate chickens to move around. We also explore the relationship among the disturbance with light beams, body weight, and feed intake. The comprehensive analysis of these statistics will be helpful in assessing the benefits of the light-beam chicken flock disturbing system in actual breeding environments, providing practical references for the sustainable development of the poultry industry in Taiwan.

II. Plans for Field Experiments

The light-beam chicken flock disturbing system was initially tested in a business field. The tests were divided into an experimental group and a control group. All equipment installed included disturbing devices with light beams, weight scales, and feed scales. The experimental field was a closed evaporative cooling poultry house in a size of 77m×23m×4.5m, and the experimented breed was the red feather native chickens. Two areas in a size of 3.0m×3.0m were divided in the field, with 80 chickens in each area. In an area, disturbance on chickens with light beams and calculations on the visual mobility of the machine were conducted. The light-beam chicken flock disturbing system was installed about 3 meters above and in parallel with the ground in the poultry house, with an embedded system equipped with a high-resolution visible light camera. The camera captured an image per second and uploaded the images to the cloud via the Internet. In the other area, only calculations on the visual mobility of the machine were performed. Poultry scales and feed intake monitors were installed in both areas to explore the relationship between the parameters of the disturbing patterned light beams and the mobility, feed intake, and weight of the chickens.

III. Light-beam Chicken Flock Disturbing System

The adjustable parts of the light-beam chicken flock disturbing system included the projected patterns, the interval between every disturbance, and the number of disturbances per day. We projected three types of patterned light beams, which are in the shape of a fixed point, a circle, and a moving point respectively, to disturb the chicken flock and observed the flock's reaction to the patterns. In the field experiments, we found that during the disturbance, the chicken flock was attracted by the patterns and moved around following them. After the disturbance ended, the flock dispersed, with which their mobility significantly improved. Among the projected patterns, the moving point is the one with the most significant disturbance effect.

Feed intake and weight analysis indicated that the light-beam chicken flock disturbing system successfully stimulated the chickens and increased the feed intake, with the average feed intake of the experimental group being apparently higher than that of the control group without laser stimulation. From what the average weight of the chickens showed, there seems to be no significant difference between the experimental group and the control group. However, the actual comparison results show that the physique and robustness of the experimental group are both superior to those of the control group. This demonstrates that the chickens in the experimental group are obviously better than those in the control group in terms of mobility and feed intake. Further interpretation of the results leads us to the conclusion that light-beam stimulation can effectively increase feed intake and robustness of chickens. This indicates that light-beam stimulation has a positive impact on the physiology and behavior of chickens, making them more active and efficient in their dietary activities.

IV. Conclusion

The light-beam chicken flock disturbing system developed by our team has an outstanding performance in disturbing a chicken flock. It also successfully quantifies the behavior of the chicken flock and obtains real-time information on the chickens through a mobility algorithm. By applying different patterned light beams, we significantly improved the mobility of the chicken flock. The experimental results show that the chicken flock exhibited obvious following behaviors towards the light beams, to which they were clearly attracted. The results also provide valuable statistics for monitoring the behavior of chickens. This comprehensive application of technology is expected to offer more advanced and effective solutions for chicken farm management, further improving the production efficiency of poultry breeding.