Helping chickens with AI

As anyone who has cared for chickens or other poultry will tell you, this can be backbreaking work. So why not build a robot to do all the work for us? This is precisely what [Aktar Kutluhan] demonstrated with an AI-powered IoT system that automatically feeds chicks and monitors unhatched eggs.

Don't get me wrong, chickens are adorable feathered creatures, but they can be quite temperamental. An egg's weight, size, and frequency can determine a hen's overall health, and she can stop laying altogether if something as simple as her feeding schedule is too sporadic. This is precisely what inspired [Aktar] to create a system that can feed the hens at a consistent time every day while keeping track of the eggs laid to ensure the coop is happy and healthy.

What's so impressive about this release isn't just the smart automation that clears up a daily task, it's built entirely with IoT devices, including AI. The setup uses Edge Impulse as the object detection model on an OPenMV Cam H7 microcontroller to recognize eggs in the poultry house. From there, a WizFi360-EVB-Pico board was connected so that data could be sent over WiFi, with a built-in DHT22 to monitor and record the overall temperature of the coop.

It's already an amazing setup, but when it comes to IoT devices, the sky is the limit. You can control heat lamps in large chicken coops, automatically fill a water bowl if the hens' water is low, or even build an incubator without intervention. We are only just beginning to see the clever ways in which AI can help monitor our pet's health. Just watch how another hacker used AI to monitor cat poop to make sure his furry friend wasn't eating plastic. Thanks to [Aktar Kutluhan] for showing us more ways to use AI to help our animals!