Design Improvement of an Automatic Fish Feeding Machine

Abstract

This study is about the design improvement of an automatic fish feeding machine. The most recent machine has been selected as the point of reference for this research. Realizing the limitation of existing automatic fish feeding machine has inspired the researcher to develop a system which overcomes previous systems’ flaws, hence giving more advantages and benefits to the owner and workers. This research has three main goals: To design and fabricate automatic fish feeding machine; to ensure an accurate amount of fish pellet to be dispersed at a predetermined time, 360° and at specified distance; and to generate electricity by using the solar panel as the power source to make it suitable for outdoor environment of fish farming. We developed a prototype to measure the ability of the new automatic machine concept. These include design improvement, storage capacity, ability and time for a pellet to dispense and the distance of food dispersed. The findings from the research showed that the use of vibration concept and gravity to channel down the fish pellet into the distribution channel has made this new design simpler. Also, the centrifugal force concept to disperse the pellet 360° is a major improvement from the previous design. Three projection angles of 0°, 15° and 30° were studied. Although the current study is based on a small sample, the findings suggest that the projection angle at 15° is the best for the current machine. We conclude that the new fish feeding machine has exceeded the performance of the previous machine in terms of functionality and design. However, with a small sample size, caution must be applied, as the finding might not be transferable to a large-scale fish farm environment. Several possible future studies using the same experiment set up are apparent.

AIoT Precision Feeding Management System

“…Through the control circuit o the fish feeder, the system can judge the degree of competition for food and control the switch of the fish feeder to adjust the speed of feeding. The state of the AIoT precision feeding management system, the intensity of the fish pellet spraying, the fish feeding time and the maximum amount of time remaining for feeding can also be monitored by the computer, as shown in Figure 16 [28,29]. the control circuit of the fish feeder, as shown in Figure 15.…”