Robochick: an automonous platform for data-collection in poultry sheds

Poultry meat birds are bred for high muscle gain but require very careful husbandry. Current poultry

monitoring technologies operate at flock level and do not provide high resolution data collection and

analytics required by modern efficient poultry producers to make significant performance gains.

RoboChick proposes a multi-functional robotic system capable of collecting data autonomously within a

poultry shed to target point-of-need/point-of-care management. This feasibility project is multi-

disciplinary, bringing together the animal welfare and ethology expertise of the Royal Veterinary College

(RVC), the livestock-oriented engineering expertise of Harper Adams University (HAU), the innovative

robotic engineering skills of Ross Robotics (RRL), and commercial poultry management skills of Applied

Poultry Ltd (APL). The project will integrate these skills to investigate the feasibility and specify a highly

functional robotic system for poultry production monitoring and management.