Study of the automated transfer of live birds to shackle line

02-05-2007 | Home | News

Research funded by the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association studied the intelligent automated transfer of live birds to the shackle line.

The study, costing an investment of over US$3 million, is part of the Association’s industry research program involving broiler, turkey and commercial egg operations.

The focus of the project was aimed at methods to integrate the processes of grasping birds from the moving conveyor, correcting their orientation, and loading both feet of the bird accurately onto the mechanical inverter for subsequent shacking and humane killing. Three specific tasks were addressed:

-> The development of an overhead conveyor for transporting a number of equally spaced graspers, each of which consists of a pair of rotating hands, as well as the mechanism that grasps a bird from the moving conveyor. The mechanical hands continuously cradle the bird for the consequent processes.

-> The development of a vision-guided magnetic actuator to correct the orientation of the grasped bird, as well as improvements on the vision system.

-> A design to provide a means to render a mechanically cradled bird insensitive to pain before shackling its feet and inverting its body.

Related links:

U.S. Poultry & Egg Association

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