Autonomous feeder for tilapia cultures using voracity as feedback for control

• Grant number: 17/15491-0
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Innovative Research in Small Business - PIPE
• Start date: April 01, 2018
• End date: December 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Fishery Resources and Fishery Engineering - Aquaculture
• Principal Investigator: Rodrigo Telles da Silva Vale
• Grantee: Rodrigo Telles da Silva Vale
• Company: Immersus Tecnologia Ltda - ME
• CNAE: Aqüicultura em água doce ; Fabricação de máquinas e equipamentos para as indústrias de alimentos, bebidas e fumo ; Pesquisa e desenvolvimento experimental em ciências físicas e naturais
• City: São Paulo
• Pesquisadores principais: Lucas Machado de Oliveira
• Associated researchers: Érico Tadao Teramoto ; Guilherme Wolff Bueno ; Rodrigo Roubach ; Thiago de Castro Martins
• Associated scholarship(s): 18/12300-2 - Development of a satiety indicator for tilapia with focus on the optimization of the feed conversion factor in intensive farms, BP.TT

Abstract

Brazil has a very extensive water resources and coastline. Associated with its favorable weather, the aquaculture industry emerges as a very attractive economic activity. Nevertheless, the country uses only 0,3% of its continental water reserves for fish production, being pointed as the only nation capable of competing the absolute world leader, China, in terms of production. Regionally, it is the agribusiness sector with the highest growth rate, with an average of 10% p.a on the last five years. The main barriers for its development are the skilled labor shortage, environmental management and ration costs, which represents 70% of production charges. Given this scenario, this project focuses on Brazilian farms of tilapia, for its important productivity, lack of technology and strategic geographic disposition. It will be implemented an autonomous system for monitoring fish's voracity during feeding, detecting the right moment to stop ration distribution. By that, it is expected a reduction of about 15% on food waste. The result is an scalable and standardized product that reduces costs and minimizes the environmental impact due to excess feeding. There are no competitors on this segment, since foreign fish farms use different species, infrastructure and techniques and there are no national tools or companies proposing an autonomous and intelligent system for ration control. (AU)