Autonomous Barn Cleaning Machine with Lifting Appendages
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for cleaning barns with enriched cages or aviaries are inefficient, making it difficult to maintain hygiene and collect eggs during the farming cycle, as manual removal of litter is burdensome and often results in dirty eggs due to hens laying on the litter, which are not collected by automated systems and are valued less.
Innovation Solution
A machine equipped with a frame, locomotion means, guide systems, and specialized components for removing excrement and eggs, featuring a scraper-cutter-suction mechanism, side arms for egg channels, and mirrors to guide birds, allowing for autonomous cleaning and disinfection of barns, including areas beneath cages and corridors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If manual removal of litter is used during the farming cycle, then hygiene conditions can be maintained, but the operation becomes very difficult and burdensome requiring frequent intervention
Solution Approach 1:
The cleaning machine is designed to operate autonomously in the barn, moving along corridors and beneath cages to remove litter automatically without requiring manual intervention. The machine serves itself by navigating the terrain and performing cleaning operations independently, resolving the contradiction between maintaining hygiene reliability and ease of operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the manual mechanical system (operators with wheelbarrows and shovels) with an automated mechanical cleaning machine equipped with locomotion means, scraping elements, and suction systems. This substitution eliminates the burdensome manual operation while maintaining effective hygiene control throughout the farming cycle.
2Productivity
If automated egg collection systems are used, then clean eggs can be collected efficiently, but eggs laid on the litter accumulated on the floor cannot be collected
Solution Approach 1:
The cleaning machine performs preliminary cleaning actions by continuously removing litter before hens can lay eggs on it. By maintaining a clean floor environment proactively throughout the farming cycle, the system prevents the accumulation of litter that would otherwise prevent automated egg collection systems from retrieving eggs, thus ensuring both productivity and reliability in egg collection.
3Area of stationary object
If the corridor width is kept at 90-120 cm for barn layout, then space is optimized, but cleaning and gathering operations become difficult in the narrow spaces
Solution Approach 1:
The cleaning machine incorporates dynamic and adaptable components including articulated appendages, flexible scraping elements, and adjustable suction systems that can navigate and adapt to the narrow 90-120 cm corridor width. The machine's design allows it to dynamically adjust its configuration to operate effectively in the constrained space while maintaining cleaning effectiveness, resolving the contradiction between space optimization and operational ease.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The machine effectively cleans and disinfects all areas of the barn, reducing manual labor, maintaining better hygiene, and ensuring cleaner eggs by autonomously removing litter and excrement, improving egg quality and reducing economic losses.
Implementation Method 1
suction means (14) attached to the frame (2), for removing the excrement from the barn floor
Implementation Method 2
a scraper-cutter-suction mechanism
Data Source
Figure 1
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AI summary
A machine for cleaning barns for farming birds, comprising a frame (2), locomotion means (3) with steering wheels, means for removing chicken excrement (8) from the floor of the barn and means (25) for lifting the projecting appendages of the cages, so as to be able to transit in the narrow spaces present in bird-farming barns. The machine can, with a single passage along the corridors of the breeding farm, collect the excrement and perform a washing and disinfection. If beneath the cages there is an accessible space for the birds, in a first step the machine can remove the excrement present along the corridor and extract the excrement present beneath the cages, accumulating it into the transit corridor, in a second step it can collect the excrement accumulated before along the corridor and perform washing and disinfection.