Bird's Eye Robotics, Inc. received a $175,000 Project Grant award from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture to develop autonomous dead-bird retrieval technology for the poultry industry. Funded under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program, the award period runs from July 1, 2022 to February 28, 2023.
The company will develop forward-facing computer vision and image recognition software, as well as mechanical grapple hardware, to enable autonomous detection and removal of dead and culled birds from standardized broiler barn layouts. Key objectives include mortality recognition algorithms across a bird's lifecycle, distinguishing between dead and culled birds, and prototyping an optimal grapple mechanism. The proposed research aims to design a fully autonomous mortality recovery system that improves production efficiency and animal health and welfare in the poultry industry, as prioritized under the SBIR program.