Theoretical background for a robotic device designed for suckling piglets nursing

Abstract

The pig industry in Russia annually ramps up production through the improved intensity, high prolificacy of sows, high average daily weight gain, low conversion rate, and high slaughter yield. From 2005 to 2019, the pig production volume increased by above 2.6 times and, according to forecasts, this trend will continue. The greater domestic production contributes to a reduction in the share of imported products, which at the end of 2019 was 2.4% maximum. Complete self-sufficiency in pork, pork offal and pork fat increased the export capacity of these products to roughly100 thousand tons, with a forecast of 270 thousand tons by 2024. To achieve this indicator, however, requires the more effective use of animal genetic potential with a simultaneous decrease in production costs. A promising direction for addressing this challenge is to increase the number of weaned piglets per sow per farrowing. The current solving tools are various devices for manual and automated supplementary feeding of piglets. Their application, however, results in many stressful situations, the spread of gastrointestinal diseases and a drop in the overall litter weight. A robotic device is under development to avoid these implications and replace a sow completely and not merely provide a supplementary feeding of suckling pigs from larger litters. The robotic device operates on a cyclic algorithm, which includes the following operations: the opening of valves for supplying the ingredients to prepare a feed mixture; its direct distribution to animals; the system rinsing; functioning of electric motors for mixing the feed components; functioning of servo drives to bring the locking devices and teats to a working position; operation of relay for giving sound and light signals; switching on and off the disinfection system. The article presents a mathematical model for determining the running time of each operation within the work cycle and assessing the device’s energy consumption in general terms. The created model takes into account the change in the prepared feed mixture consumption depending on the age of the suckling pigs and allows selecting the required technological equipment for the manufacture of the robotic device’s prototype.