智慧型斑馬魚養殖系統自動投餌機之研發

Abstract

商業型的斑馬魚養殖系統普遍用於養殖實驗用斑馬魚，雖然其具有多項優點，但在餵食管理上相當耗費人力，本研究針對商業型的斑馬魚養殖系統研發自動投餌機，能投餵斑馬魚顆粒飼料（乾料）和浮游水中的豐年蝦幼體（濕料），並能夠精準控制投餌量。其動作經由Arduino晶片控制，具有強大的控制彈性，可以成為未來智慧型斑馬魚養殖系統的基礎。本研究研發出基於氣壓輸送的乾濕料投餌機構，乾料投餌機構由Arduino晶片控制步進馬達，步進馬達精準的使轉桿旋轉一圈，利用轉桿的凹槽將定量飼料由上送到底部，再由壓縮空氣噴出。濕料投餌機構利用氣壓對飼料瓶打氣，以維持餌料生物的存活，並利用Arduino晶片控制電磁閥的開關，從而控制飼料瓶裡的空氣壓力，讓飼料瓶中的餌料生物及液體經管子噴出。本研究使用載台結合乾濕料投餌機構，利用光感開關控制載具移動，以測試其定位投餌之效果。測試結果顯示，乾料投餌機構能根據不同直徑凹槽的轉桿而精準的投出飼料，三種不同直徑轉桿（5，7，9毫米）的投餌量和誤差分別為0.04±0.004g、0.11±0.014g和0.21±0.022g，投餌精準度比人力投餌高許多（人手平均±誤差： 0.1±0.14g）。不僅證明此機構能達到斑馬魚每天的進食需求，而且每次完整的投餌動作由開始到完成只需要15秒，相較人手投餌更省時。濕料投餌機構的測試結果顯示，濕料投餌能穩定的把飼料瓶中的液體完全投出，投餌100次的誤差小於1％（平均±誤差： 10.1±0.1ml）。移動定位的測試結果顯示，在10次測試中只出現一次會影響投餌的偏離（偏離3.5mm），其餘的誤差介於0到1.5mm間，符合坊間商業型斑馬魚養殖系統的移動定位需求，本投餌機構不抵觸國外自動投餌機的專利，具有申請全新專利的價值，對未來建立本土化智慧型斑馬魚養殖系統極為有利。

Commercial zebrafish culture systems are commonly used for culturing experimental zebrafish. Although they have many advantages, commercial culture systema lacking the automatic feeding capabilities are usually laborious to operate and could lead to poor and unstable qualities of the cultured fish. This research is aimed to develop an automatic feeding mechine, capable of feeding dry pallets or powders and liquids containing live brine shrimp larvae, accurately enough to replace human feeding, and can be adopted to the smart zebrafish culture systems. In this research, a dry and a wet feeding mechanisms are developed using air pressure to deliver the feed. The dry feeding mechanism has an Arduino chip that controls a stepping motor. The motor drives a rotating rod at the bottom of the feeder, a groove on the rotating rod transfers a fixed amount of a channel below it, allowing the feed to be blown out by the air pump. The wet feeding mechanism uses air bubbles to aerate the water in the feed bottle to keep brine shrimp nauplii, it uses the Arduino chip and a solenoid valve to control the air in to the fodder bottle, which then help to force the water comtaining the nauplii to spray out through a tube. Further, a light sensor is used to position a carrier for the dry and wet feeding mechanisms to test movement and positioning results. The results show that the dry feeding mechanism can accurately throw out fodder according to the sizes of the rotating rods. The feeding amount and error of the three different diameter rotating rods (5, 7, 9mm) are 0.04 ± 0.004g, 0.11 ± 0.014g and 0.21 ± 0.022g, this resprctively result is more accurate than manual feeding (manual:0.1±0.14g), proving that this mechanism can meet the daily feeding needs of zebrafish. Each complete feeding action takes only 15 seconds from start to finish, much more efficient than manual feeding. The test results of the wet feeding mechanism show that the wet feeding can completely throw out the liquid in the feed bottle at a very stable rate, with the errors of 100 feedings less than 1% (average ± error: 10.1 ± 0.1ml). The movement mechanism test results show that only one of the 10 tests deviated more than expected (3.5mm), and the remaining errors are between 0 and 1.5mm, meaning the feeding mechanism can deliver feed to fish tanks accurately for commercial zebrafish culture systems. The feeding mechanism does not conflict with the existing patents of other feeding machines, and can apply for new patents, this is extremely beneficial to the build up of a localized intelligent zebrafish culture system in the future.