Problem

In the traditional poultry farming, the hens are bound in their battery cages, which prohibits the hen from engaging in their natural behaviors, which causes them to suffer. Many poultry farmers have started adopting "Free-Range Poultry farming" allowing chicks to engage in a suitable range of activities.

Free range poultry farming is a popular method of farming, but it can be difficult to collect eggs from the hens. To prevent losses while adopting flat feeding, farmers must harvest eggs outside the nest on the field. The traditional method of manually collecting eggs can be time-consuming and physically demanding for farmers.The majority of the time spent by chicken producers is spent on these tasks. Additionally, there is a risk of damaging the eggs during collection, which can lead to financial losses for the farmer.

As a result, egg producers are interested in learning new and improved methods for harvesting eggs effectively and maximize production efficiency for a good profit. The already existing egg collection mechanisms aren’t fully effective and need drastic changes for improvements.

Our team was tasked with designing and fabricating a prototype egg collection mechanism that would assist indoor free range poultry farming, which would automate the manual gathering of floor eggs in an indoor free-range poultry house system.

We identified several challenges that needed to be addressed in order to create an effective egg collection mechanism. First, we needed to design a gripper that could safely and gently pick up the eggs without cracking them. Second, we needed to develop a system for sorting the collected eggs based on their quality. Finally, we needed to create a storage system that would keep the sorted eggs safe for distribution

Solution

After researching different types of grippers and egg sorting systems, we decided to create a novel design using jamming deformable grippers, which can pick multiple eggs and at less computation cost. These grippers use suction pressure to gently pick up objects without damaging them, with the help of Natural Latex ballons. We also developed a custom sorting system that used image processing algorithms to determine the quality of each egg based on its size, shape, and color.

To store the sorted eggs, we created a modular storage system that could be easily expanded as needed. Each module had multiple compartments with adjustable dividers so that different sizes of eggs could be stored together without touching each other.

Impact

Reduced the time and physical effort required for egg collection and increased the egg picking accuraccy drastically

Team

Amirul Haqe- Mechanical Engineer
Erin Jossy- Mechanical Engineer
Rajat - Software Engineer
Jesvin Alelil Biju- Mechanical Engineer
Abdussameeu Kozhikkattil - Software Engineer

AVIBOT - Egg Collecton Bot