Advanced imaging and sensor concepts research studies focus on the design of systems for grading, inspection, and animal health monitoring. The systems employ audio as well as stereo 3D, time-of-flight, visible, IR, and UV imaging modalities.
VR Cutting Trajectories
Researchers continue to evaluate the feasibility of using virtual reality (VR) technologies to create frameworks for testing, evaluating, and optimizing various systems in a poultry processing environment. Recent work has focused on testing cutting trajectories on VR models, which resulted in the development of new cutting and manipulation approaches for poultry deboning applications. These approaches can be used in simulations to test and evaluate techniques for responding to variations due to genetic phenotypes. The team is also using the technology to help design robot grippers by studying their interaction with poultry in the VR environment, which eliminates the need to build and test the actual hardware.
Multi-Function Sensory System
Researchers continue to optimize an ammonia micro-sensor system that is targeted to measuring levels of ammonia in farm air with minimal interference from other sources. Recent work has focused on refining the sensor’s design to provide greater tolerance to changes in the environment such as humidity and temperature at microwatt operation power. As a result, the system is anticipated to have a longer shelf life in the poultry house with a significantly low number of false alarms. Preliminary tests showed the system was able to detect 1-100 ppm of ammonia.