StockBot: AI-driven poultry robotics to improve chicken welfare, litter quality, and associated emissions
StockBot is the integration of Kell Idea's award-winning 'LeoRover' and FLOX's AI-powered performance and welfare monitoring system, NetFLOX; successfully deployed under a prior Innovate UK project.
StockBot will become a commercial agribot system to monitor and manage litter quality while taking high-value actions such as the spraying of neutralising agents, which has a significant impact on **reducing ammonia emissions and achieving DEFRA/UKRI's goal of 'net zero'.**
StockBot's on-board sensors capture ammonia levels in areas identified as having poor litter quality -- creating virtuous feedback loops and enabling business-critical environmental data to be shared with supply chain stakeholders.
The consortium represents a nexus between R&D, growers and ag-entrepreneurs, with **clear productivity and resilience benefits for broiler farmers**. To ensure adoption, end-users will collaborate with the **research and innovation community from initial design studies through to Knowledge Exchange**.
NetFLOX-XXL – Transforming chicken farming with scalable, automated welfare indexing and environmental footprinting
This 18-month project builds NetFLOX-XXL, an AI-powered remote broiler farm management system; with innovations for mass adoption. Our product uses advanced AI to improve **productivity, sustainability and resilience** in the broiler industry, and has demonstrated PoC in previous demonstrations.
Now, we're conducting innovative R&D to build a scalable industrial demonstrator system (NetFLOX-XXL); helping the industry to improve welfare outcomes and move closer to net-zero. This work builds the base of a commercial system to scale to 1,000 sheds. The UK broiler supply chain is under strain -- endemic labour shortages, Brexit, Covid-19, incoming environmental regulations, and CO2 and fuel shortages; are threatening national food security, safety, and self-sufficiency. The opportunity to do so is time-sensitive, and now. In this project, the consortium will prime a ruggedised NetFLOX-XXL for **widespread adoption**.
FLOX-box - On-Prem AI-Driven Poultry Welfare, Performance & Ammonia Control
The Covid-19 pandemic has greatly exacerbated an endemic labour shortage in the UK broiler industry while underscoring the very real biosecurity risk of human/livestock interaction. In leaving Europe, the UK is opening itself up to cheaper, low-welfare chicken from the USA. This has put a lot of pressure on UK broiler farmers who either need to race to the 'welfare bottom', or find a solution to compete while maintaining and improving their welfare standards. Increased demand for poultry has also meant farmers are building nearer residential locations and vulnerable SSSI ecosystems. This is particularly the case in the two largest poultry producing regions -- Hereford and Shropshire.
The recent advances in, and falling costs of sensor systems, automation, data science and image processing algorithms enables a radical rethink of conventional farming. This project aims to make high-welfare chicken production more cost effective and help the UK chicken industry continue to grow -- sustainably.
NetFLOX: remote poultry farming fit for a post-pandemic world
This project will develop NetFLOX -- an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system providing poultry farmers with 24/7 media feeds, decision-support data and real-time alerts to improve welfare and performance and reduce environmental impact.
NetFLOX is a remote farm management system with initial applications in the high-welfare UK broiler industry. The Covid-19 pandemic has greatly exacerbated an endemic labour shortage while underscoring the biosecurity risks of human/livestock interaction. Increased demand for chicken (which spiked further during lockdown) has necessitated farmers building nearer residential locations and vulnerable SSSI ecosystems such as peat-bogs -- particularly in key poultry-producing regions Devon and Shropshire.
In addition, with Brexit looming, the UK is opening itself up to cheaper, potentially chlorinated, low-welfare chicken from the USA. This is putting significant pressure on UK broiler farmers to 'race to the welfare bottom', or find a solution to compete -- all in the context of a post-pandemic world. To help the industry scale sustainably, and remain resilient to "unprecedented times", automation and evidence-led management are a must... and the time is now.
**NetFLOX represents the future of farming: remote, low-impact, high-welfare, and with greatly reduced risk of zoonosis.**