Predictive Red-Light Control for Animal Heat Stress Preconditioning
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Heat stress in animal farming, particularly in high-density environments, negatively affects animal welfare and productivity, and existing cooling methods like fog spraying can lead to mold and bacterial issues.
Innovation Solution
A control device that predicts heat stress by analyzing environmental conditions and uses lighting characteristics, specifically red light with a peak wavelength between 600 to 780 nanometers, to pre-condition animals before the stress occurs, altering their behavior to mitigate the impact.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If fog spraying systems are used to cool animals during heat stress, then temperature control is improved, but mold formation and bacterial spread increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs thermal manipulation by illuminating animals with specific lighting characteristics (red light with peak wavelength 600-780nm) before the actual heat stress occurs. This pre-conditioning allows animals to adapt their physiology and behavior in advance, reducing the need for intensive cooling measures during heat stress events and thereby avoiding mold and bacterial issues associated with fog spraying.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention replaces the mechanical cooling system (fog spraying) with an optical system (lighting device emitting red light). Instead of using water vapor to cool animals, the system uses light to induce physiological changes that help animals cope with heat stress, thereby eliminating the harmful side effects of fog spraying while maintaining temperature control effectiveness.
2Productivity
If animal density is increased to achieve economically viable production, then productivity is improved, but heat stress risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
By implementing thermal manipulation through specific lighting before heat stress events, the system prepares animals for high-density conditions. This pre-conditioning enhances individual animal heat tolerance, allowing higher stocking densities to be maintained sustainably without compromising animal welfare or productivity during heat stress periods.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~3
AI summary
The invention relates to pre-conditioning an animal(s) to (the risk of) heat stress. The invention provides a control device for controlling a lighting device to illuminate at least one animal in a space, wherein the control device is configured to: obtain prediction data indicative of a value of an environmental condition in said space during a future time period; determine said value of the environmental condition based on the prediction data; determine a prediction of heat stress of the at least one animal in said space during the future time period if said value of the environmental condition falls within a predefined limit for heat stress; control, upon determining said prediction of heat stress, a lighting device to illuminate the at least one animal in said space with a lighting characteristic at least partly before said future time period.