Articles | Open Access | DOI: https://doi.org/10.37547/tajabe/Volume06Issue09-04

ROBOTICS APPLICATION IN POULTRY FARMING: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

Etop Nkereuwem Essien (PhD) , Department of Agricultural Education, University of Uyo, Nigeria
Inibehe Archibong Job (PhD) , Department of Agricultural Education, University of Uyo, Nigeria

Abstract

Poultry farming plays a pivotal role in addressing human food demand. Robots are emerging as promising tools in poultry farming, with the potential to address sustainability issues while meeting the increasing production needs and demand for animal welfare. This review aims to identify the current advancements, problems and prospects of development for robotics in poultry farming by examining existing challenges, solutions and innovative research, including robot-animal interactions. This paper covers the application of robots in different areas, from environmental monitoring to disease control, floor eggs collection and animal welfare. Robots not only demonstrate effective implementation on farms but also hold potential for ethological research on collective and social behaviour, which can in turn drive a better integration in industrial farming, with improved productivity and enhanced animal welfare.

Keywords

Increasing production needs, challenges, solutions and innovative research

References

Abbas, G., Jaffery, S., Hashmi, A.H., Tanveer, A.J., Arshad, M., Amin, Q.A., Saeed, M.I., Saleem, M., Qureshi, R.A.M., Khan, A.A., Alvi, M.A., Mustafa, A., Qamar, S.H., Iqbal, T.A., Shabbir, S.B., Ashraf, M., Ahmad, F., Iqbal, A., Abbas, S., Mahboob, U., Hassan, M.U., Khan, R.U., Abbas, H., Sultan, Z., Al-Taey, D.K., Rehman, M.S., Tayyab, M., Shaukat, B., Zafar, M.R., 2022. Prospects and challenges of adopting and implementing smart technologies in poultry production. Pak. J. Sci. 74 (2).

Abeyesinghe, S.M., Chancellor, N.M., Moore, D.H., Chang, Y.-M., Pearce, J., Demmers, T., Nicol, C.J., 2021. Associations between behaviour and health outcomes in conventional and slow-growing breeds of broiler chicken. Animal 15, 100261.

Aggrey, S.E., 2009. Logistic nonlinear mixed effects model for estimating growth parameters. Poult. Sci. 88, 276–280.

Agnvall, B., Ali, A., Olby, S., Jensen, P., 2014. Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus) selected for low fear of humans are larger, more dominant and produce larger offspring. Animal 8, 1498–1505.

Ahmad, I., Ullah, M., Alkafafy, M., Ahmed, N., Mahmoud, S.F., Sohail, K., Ullah, H., Ghoneem, W.M., Ahmed, M.M., Sayed, S., 2022. Identification of the economics, composition, and supplementation of maggot meal in broiler production. Saudi J. Biol. Sci. 29, 103277.

Althoefer, K., 2018. Antagonistic actuation and stiffness control in soft inflatable robots. Nature Reviews Materials, 3(6), pp.76-77.

Aral, Y., Arikan, M.S., Onbasilar, E.E., Unal, N., Gokdai, A., Erdem, E., 2017. Economic comparison of unenriched and alternative cage systems used in laying hen husbandry-recent experience under Turkish commercial conditions. Worlds Poult. Sci. J. 73, 69– 76.

Astill, J., Dara, R.A., Fraser, E.D., Roberts, B., Sharif, S., 2020. Smart poultry management: Smart sensors, big data, and the internet of things. Comput. Electron. Agric. 170, 105291.

Attia, Y.A., Rahman, M.T., Hossain, M.J., Basiouni, S., Khafaga, A.F., Shehata, A.A., Hafez, H.M., 2022. Poultry production and sustainability in developing countries under the COVID-19 crisis: Lessons learned. Animals 12, 644.

Bateson, P.P.G., Jaeckel, J.B., 1974. Imprinting: correlations between activities of chicks during training and testing. Anim. Behav. 22, 899–906.

Bhanja, S.K., Bhadauria, P., 2018. Behaviour and welfare concepts in laying hens and their association with housing systems.

Brantsæter, M., Tahamtani, F.M., Moe, R.O., Hansen, T.B., Orritt, R., Nicol, C., Janczak, A.M., 2016. Rearing laying hens in aviaries reduces fearfulness following transfer to furnished cages. Front. Vet. Sci. 3, 13.

Bliss, L., Vasas, V., Freeland, L., Roach, R., Ferrè, E. R., Versace, E., 2023. A spontaneous gravity prior: newborn chicks prefer stimuli that move against gravity. Biology Letters, 19(2), 20220502.

Bochkovskiy, A., Wang, C.-Y., Liao, H.-Y.M., 2020. Yolov4: Optimal speed and accuracy of object detection. ArXiv Prepr. ArXiv200410934.

Bolhuis, J.J., 1991. Mechanisms of avian imprinting: a review. Biol. Rev. 66, 303–345.

Bolhuis, J.J., Van Kampen, H.S., 1991. Auditory learning and filial imprinting in the chick. Behaviour 117, 303–319.

Buijs, S., Booth, F., Richards, G., McGaughey, L., Nicol, C.J., Edgar, J., Tarlton, J.F., 2018. Behavioural and physiological responses of laying hens to automated monitoring equipment. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 199, 17–23.

Buijs, S., Nicol, C.J., Booth, F., Richards, G., Tarlton, J.F., 2020. Light-based monitoring devices to assess range use by laying hens. animal 14, 814–823.

Butterworth, A., Arnould, C., Niekerk, T.F., 2009. Assessment protocol for poultry. Welfare Quality Consortium Lelystad, The Netherlands.

Carenzi, C., Verga, M., 2009. Animal welfare: review of the scientific concept and definition. Ital. J. Anim. Sci. 8, 21–30.

Casey-Trott, T.M., Korver, D.R., Guerin, M.T., Sandilands, V., Torrey, S., Widowski, T.M., 2017. Opportunities for exercise during pullet rearing, Part II: Long-term effects on bone characteristics of adult laying hens at the end-of-lay. Poult. Sci. 96, 2518–2527.

Chai, L., 2022. Robots for Precision Poultry and Egg Production. Precision Poultry Farming https://site.caes.uga.edu/precisionpoultry/2022/08/robots-for-precision-poultry-and-egg-production/ (accessed 21 February 2023).

Chang, C.-L., Xie, B.-X., Wang, C.-H., 2020. Visual guidance and egg collection scheme for a smart poultry robot for free-range farms. Sensors 20, 6624.

Chicken Nannies, 2017. Chicken nannies are all the rage in China, https://www.farmprogress.com/farm-life/chicken-nannies-are-all-the-rage-in-china (accessed 23 February 2023).

Christensen, J.W., Ahrendt, L.P., Malmkvist, J., Nicol, C., 2021. Exploratory behaviour towards novel objects is associated with enhanced learning in young horses. Sci. Rep. 11, 1428.

Costantini, M., Ferrante, V., Guarino, M., Bacenetti, J., 2021. Environmental sustainability assessment of poultry productions through life cycle approaches: A critical review. Trends Food Sci. Technol. 110, 201–212.

Cronin, G. M., Glatz, P. C., 2020. Causes of feather pecking and subsequent welfare issues for the laying hen: a review. Animal Production Science, 61(10), 990-1005. Dawson, L.C., Widowski, T.M., Liu, Z., Edwards, A.M., Torrey, S., 2021. In pursuit of a better broiler: a comparison of the inactivity, behavior, and enrichment use of fast-and slower growing broiler chickens. Poult. Sci. 100, 101451.

de Margerie, E., Lumineau, S., Houdelier, C., Yris, M.R., 2011. Influence of a mobile robot on the spatial behaviour of quail chicks. Bioinspir. Biomim. 6, 034001.

de Mesquita Souza Saraiva, M., Lim, K., do Monte, D.F.M., Givisiez, P.E.N., Alves, L.B.R., de Freitas Neto, O.C., Kariuki, S., Júnior, A.B., de Oliveira, C.J.B., Gebreyes, W.A., 2022. Antimicrobial resistance in the globalized food chain: A One Health perspective applied to the poultry industry. Braz. J. Microbiol. 1–22.

Dennis, I.C., Abeyesinghe, S.M., Demmers, T.G.M., 2020. The behaviour of commercial broilers in response to a mobile robot. Br. Poult. Sci. 61, 483–492.

Dixon, L.M., 2020. Slow and steady wins the race: The behaviour and welfare of commercial faster growing broiler breeds compared to a commercial slower growing breed. PLoS One 15, e0231006.

Dogan, N., Kaygisiz, F., Altinel, A., 2018. Technical and economic efficiency of laying hen farms in Konya, Turkey. Braz. J. Poult. Sci. 20, 263–272.

Edgar, J., Held, S., Jones, C., Troisi, C., 2016. Influences of maternal care on chicken welfare. Animals 6, 2.

Edgar, J.L., Paul, E.S., Nicol, C.J., 2013. Protective mother hens: cognitive influences on the avian maternal response. Anim. Behav. 86, 223–229.

ElZanaty, H., 2014. A Techno-Economic study for heating poultry houses using renewable energy [master's Thesis, the American University in Cairo]. AUC Knowledge Fountain. https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/123

Feng, Q., Wang, B., Zhang, W., Li, X., 2021. Development and Test of Spraying Robot for Anti-epidemic and Disinfection in Animal Housing, in 2021 WRC Symposium on Advanced Robotics and Automation (WRC SARA). IEEE, pp. 24–29.

Feng, Q.C., Wang, X., 2020. Design of disinfection robot for livestock breeding. Procedia Comput. Sci. 166, 310–314.

Fernyhough, M., Nicol, C.J., van de Braak, T., Toscano, M.J., Tønnessen, M., 2020. The ethics of laying hen genetics. J. Agric. Environ. Ethics 33, 15–36.

Ferreira, V.H.B., Germain, K., Calandreau, L., Guesdon, V., 2020. Range use is related to free-range broiler chickens’ behavioral responses during food and social conditioned place preference tests. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 230, 105083.

Flora, G.D., Sandhiya, R., Santhiya, P., Sindhu, G., Sribavathaarani, K.G., Ramani, U., 2022. Smart Monitoring Instrumentation design for poultry farmhouse, in: 2022 7th International Conference on Communication and Electronics Systems (ICCES). IEEE, pp. 1551–1554.

Fraser, D., 2009. Animal behaviour, animal welfare and the scientific study of affect. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 118, 108–117.

Fras J., Maciaś M., Czubaczyński, F., Sałek P., Główka J, 2016. Soft Flexible Gripper Design, Characterization and Application (pp. 368-377). In Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering (Vol. 543, pp. 368-377). Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-48923-0_40.

Frazier, P.A., Jamone, L., Althoefer, K. and Calvo, P., 2020. Plant bioinspired ecological robotics. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 7, p.79.

Gerber, P.J., Mottet, A., Opio, C.I., Falcucci, A., Teillard, F., 2015. Environmental impacts of beef production: Review of challenges and perspectives for durability. Meat Sci. 109, 2–12.

Gittins, P., McElwee, G., Tipi, N., 2020. Discrete event simulation in livestock management. J. Rural Stud. 78, 387–398.

Göransson, L., Abeyesinghe, S., Yngvesson, J., Gunnarsson, S., 2023. How are they really doing? Animal welfare on organic laying hen farms in terms of health and behaviour. Br. Poult. Sci. 64, 552–564.

Gray, J.A., 1987. The psychology of fear and stress. Cambridge University Press. 422 pp, ISBN 0-521-27098-7.

Gribovskiy, A., Halloy, J., Deneubourg, J.-L., Mondada, F., 2018. Designing a socially integrated mobile robot for ethological research. Robot. Auton. Syst. 103, 42–55.

Gunnarsson, S., Arvidsson Segerkvist, K., Göransson, L., Hansson, H., Sonesson, U., 2020. Systematic mapping of research on farm-level sustainability in egg and chicken meat production. Sustainability 12, 3033.

Hafez, H.M., Attia, Y.A., 2020. Challenges to the poultry industry: current perspectives and strategic future after the COVID-19 outbreak. Front. Vet. Sci. 7, 516.

Ham, A.D., Osorio, D., 2007. Colour preferences and colour vision in poultry chicks. Proc. R. Soc. B Biol. Sci. 274, 1941–1948.

Hassan, A., Godaba, H., Althoefer, K., 2019. Design Analysis of a Fabric-Based Lightweight Robotic Gripper. In K. Althoefer, J. Konstantinova, & K. Zhang (Eds.), Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems, TAROS 2019 (pp. 1-10). Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Vol. 11649). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23807-0_2

Hartcher, K.M., Jones, B., 2017. The welfare of layer hens in cage and cage-free housing systems. Worlds Poult. Sci. J. 73, 767–782.

Hartcher, K.M., Lum, H.K., 2020. Genetic selection of broilers and welfare consequences: a review. Worlds Poult. Sci. J. 76, 154–167.

Hess, E.H., 1973. Imprinting: Early Experience in the Developmental Psychology. Van Nostrand Reinhold Co. ISBN:0442233930, 472pp.Jacobs, L., Blatchford, R.A., De Jong, I.C., Erasmus, M.A., Levengood, M., Newberry, R.C., Regmi, P., Riber, A.B., Weimer, S.L., 2023. Enhancing their quality of life: environmental enrichment for poultry. Poult. Sci. 102, 102233.

Janczak, A.M., Riber, A.B., 2015. Review of rearing-related factors affecting the welfare of laying hens. Poult. Sci. 94, 1454–1469.

Joffe, B.P., Usher, C.T., 2017. In: Autonomous robotic system for picking up floor eggs in poultry houses. ASABE Annual International Meeting. American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, p. 1.

Jolly, L., Pittet, F., Caudal, J.-P., Mouret, J.-B., Houdelier, C., Lumineau, S., de Margerie, E., 2016. Animal-to-robot social attachment: initial requisites in a gallinaceous bird. Bioinspir. Biomim. 11, 016007.

Jones, R.B., 1996. Fear and adaptability in poultry: insights, implications, and imperatives.

Worlds Poult. Sci. J. 52, 131–174.

Kaukonen, E., Valros, A., 2019. Feather pecking and cannibalism in non-beak-trimmed laying hen flocks—Farmers’ perspectives. Animals, 9(2), 43.

Kaur, U., Voyles, R.M., Donkin, S., 2021. Future of Animal Welfare–Technological Innovations for Individualized Animal Care. Improv. Anim. Welf. 570.

Kirby, E., Zenha, R. and Jamone, L., 2022. Comparing single touch to dynamic exploratory procedures for robotic tactile object recognition. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 7(2), pp.4252-4258.

Kleyn, F.J., Ciacciariello, M., 2021. Future demands of the poultry industry: will we meet our commitments sustainably in developed and developing economies? Worlds Poult. Sci. J. 77, 267–278.

Krause, J., Winfield, A.F., Deneubourg, J.-L., 2011. Interactive robots in experimental biology. Trends Ecol. Evol. 26, 369–375.

Laschi, C., Mazzolai, B. and Cianchetti, M., 2016. Soft robotics: Technologies and systems pushing the boundaries of robot abilities. Science robotics, 1(1), p.eaah3690.

Leinonen, I., Kyriazakis, I., 2016. How can we improve the environmental sustainability of poultry production? Proc. Nutr. Soc. 75, 265–273.

Lemaire, B. S., Vallortigara, G., 2023. Life is in motion (through a chick’s eye). Animal Cognition, 26(1), 129-140

Li, G., Chesser, G.D., Huang, Y., Zhao, Y., Purswell, J.L., 2021. Development and optimization of a deep-learning-based egg-collecting robot. Trans. ASABE 64, 1659– 1669.

Li, G., Chesser, G.D., Purswell, J.L., Magee, C., Gates, R.S., Xiong, Y., 2022a. Design and Development of a Broiler Mortality Removal Robot. Appl. Eng. Agric. 38, 853–863.

Li, G., Hui, X., Zhao, Y., Zhai, W., Purswell, J.L., Porter, Z., Poudel, S., Jia, L., Zhang, B., Chesser, G.D., 2022b. Effects of ground robot manipulation on hen floor egg reduction, production performance, stress response, bone quality, and behavior. Plos One 17, e0267568.

Li, G., Xu, Y., Zhao, Y., Du, Q., Huang, Y., 2020a. Evaluating convolutional neural networks for cage-free floor egg detection. Sensors 20, 332.

Li, N., Ren, Z., Li, D., Zeng, L., 2020b. Automated techniques for monitoring the behaviour and welfare of broilers and laying hens: towards the goal of precision livestock farming. animal 14, 617–625.

Li, P., 2016. Study on caged layer health behavior monitoring robot system. (Doctoral dissertation). China Agricultural university, Beijing. Available from CNKI (in Chinese with English abstract).

Liu Y.C., Li, Y., Li, W.J., Zhou, Y., Cai, L., Li, G.H., Zuo, X.G., 2016. Henhouse Environmental Monitoring System Based on Robot. J Acta Ecol. Anim. Domastici 37, 41–47.

Liu, H.-W., Chen, C.-H., Tsai, Y.-C., Hsieh, K.-W., Lin, H.-T., 2021. Identifying images of dead chickens with a chicken removal system integrated with a deep learning algorithm. Sensors 21, 3579.

Mamun, A., 2019. Technological Development in Poultry Business: Comparative Analysis between Bangladesh and Finland. [Master's Thesis, Centria University of Applied Sciences] https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2019092019130

Mandil, W., Rajendran, V., Nazari, K. and Ghalamzan-Esfahani, A., 2023. Tactile-Sensing Technologies: Trends, Challenges and Outlook in Agri-Food Manipulation. Sensors, 23(17), p.7362.

M. B. Alatise and G. P. Hancke, "A Review on Challenges of Autonomous Mobile Robot and Sensor Fusion Methods," in IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 39830-39846, 2020, doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2975643.

McCabe, B.J., 2013. Imprinting. Wiley Interdiscip. Rev. Cogn. Sci. 4, 375–390.

Mellor, David. ‘Updating Animal Welfare Thinking: Moving beyond the “Five Freedoms” towards “A Life Worth Living”’. Animals 6, no. 3 (14 March 2016): 21. http://doi.org/10.3390/ani6030021.

Mench, J., 1998. Why it is important to understand animal behavior. ILAR J. 39, 20–26.

Meuser, V., Weinhold, L., Hillemacher, S., Tiemann, I., 2021. Welfare-related behaviors in chickens: Characterization of fear and exploration in local and commercial chicken strains. Animals 11, 679.

Miao, Z. H., Glatz, P. C., Ru, Y. J., 2005. Free-range poultry production-A review. Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences, 18(1), 113-132.

Mikoni, N.A., Guzman, D.S.-M., Paul-Murphy, J., 2023. Pain Recognition and Assessment in Birds. Vet. Clin. Exot. Anim. Pract. 26, 65–81.

Mondada, F., Martinoli, A., Correll, N., Gribovskiy, A., Halloy, J.I., Siegwart, R., Deneubourg, J.-L., 2013. A general methodology for the control of mixed natural-artificial societies. Pan Stanford Publishing Singapore. Chapter 15, pp. 1-33.

Mostafavi, S., Ray, D., Warde-Farley, D., Grouios, C., & Morris, Q. (2010). A Bayesian Framework for Combining Heterogeneous Data Sources for Gene Function Prediction. PLOS ONE, 5(8), e114487. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0014487.

Mottet, A., Tempio, G., 2017. Global poultry production: current state and future outlook and challenges. Worlds Poult. Sci. J. 73, 245–256. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0043933917000071

Guerrero, N., Toprak, S., Josifovski, J., Jamone, L., 2023. Visuo-haptic object perception for robots: an overview. Auton. Robots 47, 377–403.

Nicol, C., 2023. The Gordon Memorial Lecture: Laying Hen Welfare Br. Poult. Sci. 64 (4), 441-447. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071668.2023.2211891.

Nicol, C., 2020. Understanding the behaviour and improving the welfare of chickens. Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing Limited.

Nicol, C.J., 2019. Feather pecking in laying hens: why they do it, and welfare implications. Poult. Feathers Skin Poult. Integument Health Welf., Poultry Science Symposium Series 31–46. https://doi.org/10.1079/9781786395115.0031

Nicol, C.J., 2015. The behavioural biology of chickens. CABI.

Ochs, D., Wolf, C.A., Widmar, N.O., Bir, C., Lai, J., 2019. Hen housing system information effects on US egg demand. Food Policy 87, 101743.

Octopus XO, 2021. XO robot for responsible poultry farming - Octopus Biosafety, https://www.octopusbiosafety.com/en/xo/ (accessed 26 February 2023).

Olczak, K., Penar, W., Nowicki, J., Magiera, A., Klocek, C., 2023. The Role of Sound in Livestock Farming—Selected Aspects. Animals 13, 2307.

Olejnik, K., Popiela, E., Opaliński, S., 2022. Emerging precision management methods in poultry sector. Agriculture 12, 718.

Oliveira, J.L., Xin, H., Chai, L., Millman, S.T., 2019. Effects of litter floor access and inclusion of experienced hens in aviary housing on floor eggs, litter condition, air quality, and hen welfare. Poult. Sci. 98, 1664–1677.

Olsson, I.A.S., J Nicol, C., Niemi, S.M., Sandøe, P., 2019. From unpleasant to unbearable— Why and how to implement an upper limit to pain and other forms of suffering in research with animals. ILAR J. 60, 404–414.

Ozentürk, U., Yildiz, A., Genc, M., 2022. Assessment of the feather score and health score in laying hens reared at different cage densities. Ankara Üniversitesi Veteriner Fakültesi Dergisi, 1-22.

Parajuli, P., Huang, Y., Tabler, T., Purswell, J.L., DuBien, J.L., Zhao, Y., 2020. Comparative evaluation of poultry-human and poultry-robot avoidance distances. Trans. ASABE 63, 477–484.

Parajuli, P., Huang, Y., Zhao, Y., Tabler, T., Purswell, J.L., 2018. Comparative evaluation of poultry avoidance distances to human vs. robotic vehicle, in: 10th International Livestock Environment Symposium (ILES X). American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, p. 1.

Park, M., Britton, D., Daley, W., McMurray, G., Navaei, M., Samoylov, A., Usher, C., Xu, J., 2022. Artificial intelligence, sensors, robots, and transportation systems drive an innovative future for poultry broiler and breeder management. Anim. Front. 12, 40–48.

Paul, E.S., Browne, W., Mendl, M.T., Caplen, G., Trevarthen, A., Held, S., Nicol, C.J., 2022. Assessing animal welfare: a triangulation of preference, judgement bias and other candidate welfare indicators. Anim. Behav. 186, 151–177.

Pearce, J., Chang, Y.-M., Abeyesinghe, S., 2023. Individual Monitoring of Activity and Lameness in Conventional and Slower-Growing Breeds of Broiler Chickens Using Accelerometers. Animals 13, 1432.

Penz, A.M.J., Bruno, D.G., 2011. Challenges Facing the Global Poultry Industry to 2020.

Petek, M., Çavuşoğlu, E., 2021. Welfare Assessment of Two Free-range Laying Hen Flocks in Turkey. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 24(1), 56-63.

Poultry Patrol, 2019, https://poultrypatrol.com/?page_id=472. (accessed 26 February 2023). Putyora, E., Brocklehurst, S., Tuyttens, F., Sandilands, V., 2023. The effects of mild disturbances on sleep behaviour in laying hens. Animals 13, 1251.

Redmon, J., Divvala, S., Girshick, R., Farhadi, A., 2016. You only look once: Unified, real-time object detection, in: Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition. pp. 779–788.

Ren, G., Lin, T., Ying, Y., Chowdhary, G., Ting, K.C., 2020. Agricultural robotics research applicable to poultry production: A review. Comput. Electron. Agric. 169, 105216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2020.105216.

Ribeiro, P., Cardoso, S., Bernardino, A. and Jamone, L., 2020, October. Fruit quality control by surface analysis using a bio-inspired soft tactile sensor. In 2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) (pp. 8875-8881).

Ribeiro, P., Khan, M.A., Alfadhel, A., Kosel, J., Franco, F., Cardoso, S., Bernardino, A., Schmitz, A., Santos-Victor, J. and Jamone, L., 2017. Bioinspired ciliary force sensor for robotic platforms. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2(2), pp.971-976.

Roden, C., Wechsler, B., 1998. A comparison of the behaviour of domestic chicks reared with or without a hen in enriched pens. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 55, 317–326.

Rodić, V., Perić, L., DJukić-Stojčić, M., Vukelić, N., 2011. The environmental impact of poultry production. Biotechnol. Anim. Husb. 27, 1673–1679.

Romano, D., Donati, E., Benelli, G., Stefanini, C., 2019. A review on animal–robot interaction: from bio-hybrid organisms to mixed societies. Biol. Cybern. 113, 201–225.

Rosa-Salva, O., Fiser, J., Versace, E., Dolci, C., Chehaimi, S., Santolin, C., Vallortigara, G., 2018. Spontaneous learning of visual structures in domestic chicks. Animals, 8(8), 135.

Rosa-Salva, O., Mayer, U., Versace, E., Hébert, M., Lemaire, B.S., Vallortigara, G., 2021. Sensitive periods for social development: Interactions between predisposed and learned mechanisms. Cognition 213, 104552.

Rosa-Salva, O., Regolin, L., Vallortigara, G., 2010. Faces are special for newly hatched chicks: evidence for inborn domain-specific mechanisms underlying spontaneous preferences for face-like stimuli. Developmental science, 13(4), 565-577.

Sahan, U., Ipek, A., Dikmen, B.Y., 2006. The welfare of egg layer, broiler and turkey, in: EPC 2006-12th European Poultry Conference, Verona, Italy, 10-14 September, 2006. World’s Poultry Science Association (WPSA).

Sahoo, P.K., Kushwaha, D.K., Pradhan, N.C., Makwana, Y., Kumar, M., Jatoliya, M., Naik, M.A., Mani, I., 2022. Robotics application in agriculture. In: 55 Annual Convention of Indian Society of Agricultural Engineers and International Symposium, pp. 60-76.

Sakamoto, K.S., Benincasa, N.C., Silva, I.J.O., Lobos, C.M.V., 2020. The challenges of animal welfare in modern Brazilian poultry farming. J. Anim. Behav. Biometeorol. 8, 131–135.

Sarıca, M., Türkoğlu, M., Yamak, U.S., 2018. Tavukçuluktaki gelişmeler ve Türkiye tavukçuluğu. Tavukçuluk Bilimi Yetiştirme Besleme Hastalık. Ed. M Türkoğlu M Sarıca 1 (36), 5.

Scout, 2023 https://www.scoutmonitoring.com/ (accessed 26 February 2023)

Sharma, M., Patil, C., 2018. Recent trends and advancements in agricultural research: An overview. J. Pharmacogn. Phytochem. 7, 1906–1910.

Siegford, J.M., Steibel, J.P., Han, J., Benjamin, M., Brown-Brandl, T., Dórea, J.R., Morris, D., Norton, T., Psota, E., Rosa, G.J., 2023. The quest to develop automated systems for monitoring animal behavior. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 265, 106000.

Slonina, Z., Bonzini, A.A., Brown, J., Wang, S., Farkhatdinov, I., Althoefer, K., Jamone, L., Versace, E., 2021. Using robochick to identify the behavioral features promoting social interactions, in: 2021 IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL). IEEE, pp. 1–6.

Tibot, 2021. Le robot avicole Spoutnic NAV, https://www.tibot.fr/en/rearing/broiler-robot/ (accessed 26 February 2023).

Tomo, T.P., Schmitz, A., Wong, W.K., Kristanto, H., Somlor, S., Hwang, J., Jamone, L. and Sugano, S., 2017. Covering a robot fingertip with uSkin: A soft electronic skin with distributed 3-axis force sensitive elements for robot hands. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 3(1), pp.124-131.

T-Moov, 2022. The poultry robot T-Moov, https://www.octopusbiosafety.com/en/t-moov-en/ (accessed 26 July 2023).

Usher, C.T., Daley, W.D., Joffe, B.P., Muni, A., 2017. Robotics for poultry house management, in: 2017 ASABE Annual International Meeting. American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, p. 1. 10.13031/AIM.201701103.

Vaarst, M., Steenfeldt, S., Horsted, K., 2015. Sustainable development perspectives of poultry production. Worlds Poult. Sci. J. 71, 609–620.

Vallortigara, G., Versace, E., 2022. Filial Imprinting, in: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T.K. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp. 2726–2728. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55065-7_1989

Versace, E., Martinho-Truswell, A., Kacelnik, A., Vallortigara, G., 2018. Priors in animal and artificial intelligence: Where does learning begin? Trends Cogn. Sci. 22, 963–965.

Versace, E., Ragusa, M., Pallante, V., Wang, S., 2021. Attraction for familiar conspecifics in young chicks (Gallus gallus): An interbreed study. Behav. Processes 193, 104498.

Versace, E., Ragusa, M., Vallortigara, G., 2019. A transient time window for early predispositions in newborn chicks. Sci. Rep. 9, 18767.

Vries, M. de, Boer, I.J.M. de, 2010. Comparing environmental impacts for livestock products: A review of life cycle assessments. Livest. Sci. 128, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.livsci.2009.11.007

Vroegindeweij, B. A., Boots, N.M., Bokkers, E.A.M., 2014a. Chickens don’t care about robots: The behaviour of hens towards a mobile robot, in: WIAS Science Day 2014.

Vroegindeweij, B.A., Blaauw, S.K., IJsselmuiden, J.M., van Henten, E.J., 2018. Evaluation of the performance of PoultryBot, an autonomous mobile robotic platform for poultry houses. Biosyst. Eng. 174, 295–315.

Vroegindeweij, B.A., IJsselmuiden, J., van Henten, E.J., 2016. Probabilistic localisation in repetitive environments: Estimating a robot’s position in an aviary poultry house. Comput. Electron. Agric. 124, 303–317.

Vroegindeweij, Bastiaan A., Kortlever, J.W., Wais, E., van Henten, E.J., 2014b. Development and test of an egg collecting device for floor eggs in loose housing systems for laying hens, in: Proceedings International Conference of Agricultural Engineering, Zurich, pp.1-8

Wang, S., Vasas, V., Freeland, L., Osorio, D., Versace, E., 2023. Spontaneous biases enhance generalisation in the neonate brain. bioRxiv, 2023-07.

Webster, J. Animal Welfare: Limping Towards Eden; Wiley-Blackwell: Chichester, UK, 2005

Wemelsfelder, F., Mullan, S., 2014. Applying ethological and health indicators to practical animal welfare assessment. OIE Sci. Tech. Rev. 33, 111–120.

Widowski, T.M., Rentsch, A.K., 2022. Farming poultry. Routledge Handb. Anim. Welf. 47– 63.

Wilcox, C.H., Sandilands, V., Mayasari, N., Asmara, I.Y., Anang, A., 2023. A literature review of broiler chicken welfare, husbandry, and assessment. Worlds Poult. Sci. J. 1– 30.

Wolfert, S., Ge, L., Verdouw, C., Bogaardt, M.-J., 2017. Big data in smart farming–a review. Agric. Syst. 153, 69–80.

Wood, S. M., Wood, J. N., 2015. A chicken model for studying the emergence of invariant object recognition. Frontiers in Neural Circuits, 9, 7.

Wu, D., Cui, D., Zhou, M., Ying, Y., 2022. Information perception in modern poultry farming: A review. Comput. Electron. Agric. 199, 107131.

Yang, X., Huo, X., Li, G., Purswell, J.L., Tabler, G.T., Chesser, G.D., Magee, C.L., Zhao, Y., 2020. Effects of elevated platform and robotic vehicle on broiler production, welfare, and housing environment. Trans. ASABE 63, 1981–1990.

Zenha, R., Denoun, B., Coppola, C. and Jamone, L., 2021, September. Tactile slip detection in the wild leveraging distributed sensing of both normal and shear forces. In 2021 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) (pp. 2708-2713).

Zhang, Y., Chen, Q., Liu, G., Shen, W., Wang, G., 2016. Environment parameters control based on wireless sensor network in livestock buildings. Int. J. Distrib. Sens. Netw. 12, 9079748.

Zhao, Y., 2021. In: Current Status and Industrialization Development of Industrial Robot Technology. Springer, Cham, pp. 804–808. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030- 79197-1_117.

Zhou, Z., Mei, H., Li, R., Wang, C., Fang, K., Wang, W., Tang, Y., Dai, Z., 2022. Progresses of animal robots: A historical review and perspectiveness. Heliyon e11499.

Zuidhof, M.J., Schneider, B.L., Carney, V.L., Korver, D.R., Robinson, F.E., 2014. Growth, efficiency, and yield of commercial broilers from 1957, 1978, and 2005. Poult. Sci. 93, 2970–2982.

Article Statistics

Copyright License

Download Citations

How to Cite

Etop Nkereuwem Essien (PhD), & Inibehe Archibong Job (PhD). (2024). ROBOTICS APPLICATION IN POULTRY FARMING: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS. The American Journal of Agriculture and Biomedical Engineering, 6(09), 15–34. https://doi.org/10.37547/tajabe/Volume06Issue09-04