池塘养殖全自动精准投饲系统设计与应用

目前池塘养殖过程中需要人工搬运饲料,劳动强度大、人工成本高。现有投饲设备缺少称量和自动控制功能,存在投饲量控制不精准、自动化程度低、难以集成管控等问题。为此,该研究设计了一种全自动精准投饲系统,主要由机械设备、自动控制系统、信息管理系统等组成。基于"控制在本地、管理在云端"原则确定了系统结构。采用大料仓投饲机和散装饲料实现饲料出厂、运输、装料和投料全程机械化作业。开发了基于可编程逻辑控制器和称重传感器的自动控制系统,实现设备全自动运行和投饲量精准控制。控制系统与信息管理系统对接,实现投饲管控与企业生产经营管理的一体化。通过对视频监控设备的集成实现投饲过程的可视化监控。该系统在某大型养殖企业投入生产应用,建立了800 hm2的全自动投饲养殖示范基地,基本实现投饲过程的无人化作业。与传统小型投饲机、人工搬运和加装饲料的投饲方式相比,该系统可以减少劳动力成本70%、节约饲料用量3%,有效降低成本,取得了良好经济效益,具有实际工程应用价值。

Design and application of the automatic precision feeding system of pond aquaculture

Current transportation of feed with high labor intensity has posed a great challenge on the popular aquaculture production in a timely manner at present, particularly on the pond culture. Furthermore, the quantity of delivered feed per run cannot be precisely controlled in the previous generation of widely-used feeding machines without a weighing device. In addition, the lacking of a digital control device has made feeding system difficult to be integrated into the management system in precise agriculture. The manual operation of feeding machines on site has not been feasible for large-scale farms, including a large number of ponds. In this study, a full-automatic precise feeding system was designed to improve the mechanical, automatic control, and information management in digital agriculture using cloud analytics. Four types of subsystems were firstly proposed, including mechanized operation, accurate measurement, automatic control, and digital integrated management, according to functional requirements in the need of large-scale pond aquaculture production. The system structure was based on the concept of "control was local and management was deployed in the cloud". A fully mechanized operation was realized using a large-capacity silo, and pneumatic conveyor to throw the feed. As such, the previous screw conveyor was replaced to carry the feed from the bulk truck to the silo. Three load cells were mounted on the bottom of support pillars to measure the weight of the silo. The remaining feed quantity was obtained by subtracting the weight of fixed mechanical parts from the total weight of the silo. The feed was firstly loaded into the delivery pipe through the unloader and then was blown to the inlet of the spreader through the air flow generated by the blower. A high-speed spreader was utilized to produce the centrifugal force for the spread of feed far away. A programmable logic controller (PLC) was also designed to accurately adjust the feed quantity of each feeding task, according to the preset parameters. The specific feed weight was also real-time collected from the weighing unit in the fully automated system of the feeding machine without manual operation. The local control center was constructed to realize the integrated management of the feeding task. The accurate docking of control and information management system was selected to implement the feeding control and production management. The feeding process was visualized to serve as efficient management tools using video monitoring equipment. The performance of the system was finally tested to achieve the designed goal. A demonstration base of full-automatic feeding and breeding was constructed with an area of 800 hectares in a large-scale breeding factory, including 90 feeding machines, 90 control cabinets, 5 zone control centers, and one management platform. An unmanned feeding was basically realized using the present system. The labor intensity was reduced by 70%, compared with the conventional feeding mode with a small feeding machine and manual operation. Real-time monitoring of feeding quantity was also realized in each pond for precise feeding, where the feed consumption was saved by 3%, indicating excellent performance. This finding can provide a promising application to the mechanized operation and automatic control system in large-scale pond culture.