Mathematical Modeling of an Intelligent Poultry Feed Dispensing System

Abstract

The mathematical modeling of control systems and other industrial applications has helped to shape the design and performance of different systems. One of the problems faced by existing designs of poultry feed dispensing system in the tropics is feed wastage often resulting in high cost of production. Several measures that can be used to evaluate the performance of poultry flock especially broilers are growth rate, days to market, mortality, and feed efficiency. Feed is typically the most costly expense in broiler production. As a result, feed efficiency is typically the primary tool by which a flock is evaluated. This research mathematically model an intelligent poultry feed dispensing system that will dispense both solid and liquid feed which will reduce the unusual level of human involvement, feed wastage, contamination and high cost of production. The mathematical model encompasses the speed control of a DC motor which will regulate the to and fro motion of the conveyor brushes and control the flow of the solid feed. The control of the digital valves regulates the flow rate of the liquid feed in and out of the dispensing system. The mathematical model was simulated in MATLAB r2015b environment. The simulated results showed that the system under state-space is controllable and observable when the Kalman matrix test was carried out. At the end, a dynamic model for optimized balance among better yield, returns on investment and cost of operation in dispensing poultry feed was developed.