Determination of Chicken Egg Parameters by Optical-Electronic Method

Abstract

Poultry farms in Russia use machines for sorting chicken eggs, which determine the category by weight. Eggs are ovoscoping, that is, the evaluation of the main parameters of the egg contents: the condition of air cell, position of yolk and protein density. The category is assigned based on the worst indicator. During ovoscoping, the device receives only part of the image of the shell, which reduces the accuracy of category assigning and it is not possible to fully check the shell of a chicken egg for the microcracks. (Research purpose) The research purpose is in improving the optoelectronic device for sorting chicken eggs, which will detect microcracks on the shell, as well as improve the accuracy of category assigning. (Materials and methods) The article presents a device for sorting chicken eggs. (Results and discussion) This device was upgraded by adding a camera and changing the distribution mechanism. The improved installation works as follows: a chicken egg is fed via a conveyor to a switchgear that has holes with clips; when the disk is rotated, the product is scanned with two cameras. The resulting image is fed to a computer, where using the algorithm "recognition of alfalfa seed parameters", the main parameters of the egg are calculated and a category for the product is assigned. Authors obtained a complete image of the surface of a chicken egg and determined the presence of microcracks on the shell. (Conclusions) The algorithm used requires several additional calculations to determine the state of the air chamber, the position of the yolk and protein density, and microcracks on the surface of the shell.