NOVATEUR RESEARCH SOLUTIONS LLC — Department of Agriculture SBIR Phase II: 8.3

Description

The Novateur team proposes to develop an automated system for objective non-invasiveevaluation and real-time monitoring of laying hen flocks to identify risks to hen well-being. Theproposed system comprises of various sensing technologies and deep learning-based algorithmsthat enable continuous (24/7) real-time monitoring of the flock and provides automatedquantification and continuous tracking of flock behavior. They system is able to identifybehavioral changes over time and enables automated identification and prediction of risks to henwell-being. The proposed system will serve as an early-warning-system for poultry managementand will greatly improve the likelihood of curbing potential outbreaks by early intervention thuseliminating otherwise unavoidable economic losses to the poultry producers. The Phase II systemwill leverage the technologies developed in Phase I to develop a prototype system and conductexperiments in a commercial setting.The technology has the potential to reduce operational costof poultry farms and to facilitate lower price for consumers.