自動化殘餌偵測與精準投量控制投餌機之研發

Abstract

觀賞魚養殖是現代生活中重要的休閒活動。觀賞魚養殖通常使用自動投餌機，而現有設備多有投餌量不精確的問題，影響養殖水質的穩定和養殖成效。本研究擬開發新型投餌機，以(1)精確控制投餌量和(2)偵測魚隻飽食即停止投餌來解決此一問題。在精確控制投餌量部分，本研究開發出創新的垂直螺旋出料機構，以主動方式將飼料推出，可控制飼料落下的速度，減少飼料容器中殘留飼料量的影響，並可破壞飼料在落料口上方形成的架橋現象，且藉由程式設定螺旋轉動的圈數。投餌測試結果，以本投餌機與三型市售投餌機比較，飼料平均直徑為0.3 cm之中顆粒，投餌量變動值為0.015 g，是市售投餌機的十三分之一，粉末狀飼料的投餌量變動為0.012 g，是市售投餌機的十二分之一。投餌量的飄移程度上，中顆粒投料結果為0.002 g，粉末狀的投料結果為0.008 g，市售投餌機的飄移程度則最少為0.125 g以上，相比於市售投餌機，本研究成果在投餌量精確度上，無論變動率或飄移率均大幅改善。在偵測魚隻飽食部分，本研究使用紅外線感測器偵測水面上餵食環中殘留餌料的反射數值，作為飽食與否的依據，以控制投餌機的作動時間。本研究以一餵食環，加裝水下弧面罩片，使飼料得以在弧面範圍內回流至餵食環，讓殘留飼料不會散開，可確保殘留飼料監控的正確性。本研究所開發的投餌與偵測殘餌機制可以廣泛應用在觀賞魚以及其他魚類的養殖。

Ornamental fish market is about 6 billion a year. A vital equipment for ornamental fish rearing, commercial feeders usually could not satisfy the needs for precise control of the feeding rate. Therefore, it is our purpose to develop a new feeding machine to solve the problem by developing a better feed delivering mechanism and by incorporating novel sensing techniques to detect residual feeds on the surface of water. A vertical screw mechanism is developed which could not only bring the feed out of the container actively to control the rate of feeding, but it could also reduce the influence of the remaining feed in the container, eliminate the bridge effect, and be programmed to rotate set turns precisely. As a result, the feeding rate is greatly improved over the three commercial feeders tested. For 0.3 cm diameter feeds, the variation of the feeding rate is 0.015 gram, which is one-thirteenth that of the commercial feeder. For powder feeds, the variation of the feeding rate is 0.012 gram, one-twelfth that of the commercial counterpart. The drift of the feeding rate is 0.002 gram for 0.3 cm diameter feeds and is 0.008 gram for powders. The drift of feeding rate is at least 0.125 gram for commercial feeders. An infrared sensor is used to detect the reflected signal off the feed floating on water. The residual feed is constrained in a ring, which has a cone-shaped underwater extension to prevent the residual feed to flow away, so that to ensure all residual feed could be detected by the sensor. The novel feeding mechanism and the residual feed monitoring technique developed in this research could be implemented in ornamental and food fish industries for more accurate feeding.