JP2898776B2 - Automatic feeding device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic feeding apparatus for automatically feeding farmed fish in a ikese.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As the aquaculture industry for making fish in the sea and cultivating fish in the fishery has become popular, an automatic feeding device for automatically feeding fish farms has been realized. I have.

[0003] This automatic feeder is configured to automatically feed feed (feed) stored in a feed tank at a constant speed for a constant time at a constant time so that feeding can be performed without manual intervention. It has become. As a result, labor can be reduced, and there is no need to feed in standing narrow passages that swing between multiple stakes when the weather is strong or when the waves are high, greatly improving the working environment and promoting safe work. Has contributed.

[0004]

However, since the conventional automatic feeding device feeds at a constant speed for a certain period of time, even if the feeding speed of the school of fish is reduced, the feeding may occur at the same speed. In addition, the feed efficiency was reduced, and it was a cause of marine pollution.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide an automatic feeding device capable of performing feeding control according to the feeding status of a school of farmed fish.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an automatic feeding device according to the present invention comprises a means for feeding bait for cultured fish, and a sword during feeding operation by the feeding means. Detecting means for detecting the feeding situation of the farmed fish school in the
Feeding control means for controlling a feeding operation of the feeding means based on a detection result of the detecting means;
Detect fish school density near the bottom of the breeder's fish cage
It is characterized by that.

[0007]

The feed control means is, for example, 6:00, 11:00, 1
At a predetermined time such as 5:00, the feeding means is activated to start the feeding operation. Then, for example, after the feeding operation is continued for 5 minutes, the detection means is instructed to start detecting the feeding status of the farmed fish school in the stake.

[0008] Then, the detecting means starts detecting the feeding status of the farmed fish school by the following method, for example. That is, the farmed fish in the stake when feeding is not being performed are randomly distributed in various places of the ikesu or are swimming in a group at random.
On the other hand, when feeding starts, the farmed fish gather at the feeding area,
It gathers particularly under the feed opening of automatic feeding equipment. Then, the farmed fish that has been sufficiently fed leaves the feeding port and disperses in various parts of the ikesu (especially in the lower part). Therefore, the detecting means emits, for example, an ultrasonic wave at a predetermined time interval, and
If the number of reflected sounds from the cultured fish in the lower area (deep area) of the ikesu is more than a certain number, the fish has been sufficiently fed and there are many cultured fish that have come to the lower area of the ikes far from the feeding port. If the number of reflected sounds from the cultured fish in the lower region (deep region) is less than a certain number, the feeding of the cultured fish school is determined by a method such as judging that there are still a large number of farmed fish in the vicinity of the feeding port. Detect bait situation.

The feeding control means, if the result of the detection by the detecting means is that the farmed fish school is actively feeding, continues the feeding operation by the feeding means. Temporarily stop the feeding operation by
After that, when the farmed fish school becomes active in feeding, control such as restarting the feeding operation is performed.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of an automatic feeder according to the present invention, which has a feeder, a feed controller 2, a fish school sensor 3, a clock circuit 4, a battery 5, a solar cell 6, and a buzzer 7. ing.

The feeder 1 has a cylindrical tank 1a for storing a feed (feed), and this tank 1a has a tapered lower portion like a funnel. A screw conveyor 1b is attached to the lowermost end of the tank 1a. And
When the screw conveyor 1b is rotated by the motor MT, the bait in the tank 1a is sequentially conveyed to the bait discharge port 1c and discharged to the carousel. A relay RL is connected to the motor MT, and ON / OFF of the relay RL is performed.
Starts / stops the motor MT.

The feed controller 2 is a controller for controlling the feeder 1 with a microcomputer as a core. The feed controller 2 is connected to a fish school sensor 3, a clock circuit 4, and a buzzer 7. Feeding controller 2
Based on the clock signal from the clock circuit 4, the relay RL is turned on at predetermined intervals to start the feeding operation by the feeder 1. After the feeding operation is started, the fish school sensor 3 is controlled to investigate the distribution state of the cultured fish, and the relay RL is turned off / on based on the result of the investigation to control the feeding operation of the feeder 1.

The fish school sensor 3 transmits and receives ultrasonic waves to detect the presence of a school of fish, and is constituted by an ultrasonic transmitter, an ultrasonic receiver, and an ultrasonic generation circuit, and serves as a transducer for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves. Uses a material having a large electrostriction effect, such as barium titanate. The ultrasonic generation circuit generates a pulse under the control of the feed controller 2 and outputs the pulse to the ultrasonic transmitter. Then, the vibrator vibrates and emits ultrasonic waves, and the reflected sound is received by the ultrasonic receiver. The dead zone in the figure means a band in which the fish school sensor 3 cannot detect the fish school. CH-1,
CH-2,..., CH-7 and CH-8 each have a depth of 1.5.
m ~ 2.5m, 2.5m ~ 3.5m, ... 7.5m ~ 8.5m, 8.5m ~ 9.5m corresponding to the band, the feeding controller 2 is CH-7
The feeding state of the farmed fish school is determined by counting the reflected sounds from the farmed fish in the band (7.5 m to 8.5 m).

The reason why the feeding state of the farmed fish school is not determined on the basis of the reflected sound from the cultured fish in the lowest CH-8 band is that the reflected sound from the sea floor, the net of the ikesu, etc. This is to avoid confusion.

As a method of detecting the feeding status of the farmed fish school, a method such as image processing using an underwater television or detection by sound is conceivable. The former is cost, durability and permeability. The latter is problematic in that it requires the use of sound according to the fish species, age, and cultivation method. Since a fish detection sensor can be used, in this embodiment, the group sensor 3 using ultrasonic waves as described above is used.
However, it is of course possible to adopt an image processing method and an acoustic method.

The battery 5 is used as a power source of the automatic feeding device, and is charged by a solar cell 6. In other words, ikeso is made offshore or in a bay, and since a commercial power supply cannot be used, a battery is used and charged by a solar cell so that the battery need not be replaced. The buzzer 7 is sounded when starting a feeding operation.

Next, the control operation of the feed controller 2 will be described with reference to FIG. 2 and FIG.

When a preset time such as 6 o'clock, 11 o'clock or 15:00 arrives, the feed controller 2 sets the buzzer 7
Is sounded (step F-1). By this buzzer sound, the cultured fish collects conditionally reflexively in the vicinity of the feed discharge port 1c of the feeder 1, and the ikesu worker recognizes that the automatic feeding device is operating normally even from a distant place. can do.

Next, after the food is released from the feeder 1 into the sword for 5 minutes at a constant speed (step F-2),
The buzzer 7 sounds (step F-3). Then, an ultrasonic wave is transmitted from the ultrasonic transmitter of the fish school sensor 3 (step F).
-4), the reflected sound is received by the ultrasonic receiver (step F-5). Then, it is determined whether or not the set conditions are satisfied (step F-6).

The setting conditions have the following contents. That is, the transmission of the ultrasonic wave and the reception of the reflected sound are performed for 5 minutes, and the reflected sound from the cultured fish in the deep band of CH-7 (7.5 m to 8.5 m) in FIG. It is a condition. The determination as to whether or not the reflected sound is from a cultured fish in a deep band of CH-7 (7.5 m to 8.5 m) is made based on the time required for transmitting an ultrasonic wave and receiving the reflected sound. .

As a result of the determination in step (F-6), if the above-mentioned set conditions are not satisfied, a large number of cultured fish are still in the vicinity of the food discharge port 1c and are sufficiently ingested to feed the lower region. Since it is considered that the number of cultured fish that came to the area is low, if the feeder 1 is currently off, the feeder 1 is turned on to restart the feeding operation by the feeder 1 (step F-7).

On the other hand, if the above set conditions are satisfied, that is, if there is a large amount of cultured fish that have come to the lower region after sufficient feeding, it is determined whether or not the feeder 1 is off for at least 15 consecutive minutes. (Step F-8). As a result, 15 consecutive
If the feeder 1 is OFF for more than one minute, if the feeding operation is restarted, there may still be some farmed fish to feed, so to increase the size of the cultured fish quickly, turn on the feeder 1 for one minute. After feeding for 1 minute for trial (Step F-
9), and proceed to step (F-11) described later. On the other hand, if the feeder 1 is not turned off for 15 minutes or more continuously, the feeder 1 is turned off and the feeding operation is stopped (step F-
10), and proceed to step (F-11).

In step (F-11), step (F
It is determined whether or not the total feeding time including 5 minutes in -2) has reached 2 hours. As a result, the total feeding time was 2
If not, return to step (F-4),
The same processing is repeated. On the other hand, when the total feeding time reaches 2 hours, if the feeder 1 is currently ON, it is OFF.
To stop the feeding operation by the feeder 1 (step F-
12). Then, a buzzer sounds to notify the worker of the fact (step F-13), and the process ends.

Next, the operation contents according to the above-mentioned flowchart will be supplementarily described with reference to FIG.

As shown in the figure, during the first 5 minutes, the relay RL is turned on unconditionally and feeding is performed. And 5
After a lapse of minutes, an ultrasonic wave is transmitted, a reflected sound corresponding to the transmitted ultrasonic wave is received, and CH-7 (7.5 m
The process of counting only reflected sounds from farmed fish in a deep band (~ 8.5 m) is repeated every 5 minutes. At that time, if the count value has not reached the stop level at the time when 5 minutes have elapsed, feeding is continued as it is as if there are a large number of farmed fish being fed, and when the count value reaches the stop level, As a rule, stop feeding as many fish are full. However, even when it is considered that there are many fishes that are full, if the feeding operation is stopped for 15 minutes or more continuously, feeding is tried only for one minute. This is because feeding will not resume even if you are not yet full, so there is a possibility that some farmed fish may have moved to the lower layer of give-ups, and such farmed fish may be re-opened at the food outlet 1c. Invite nearby (upper layer) to feed and fully satiate.

The counting of the reflected sound from the cultured fish in the deep band of CH-7 (7.5 m to 8.5 m) is performed by using a predetermined register. Is reset to Further, the total feeding time of 2 hours is determined so as to feed an optimal amount of food in consideration of the number of farmed fish in the skewer and the speed at which the feeder 1 releases the food.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment. For example, the feeding speed is changed by changing the rotation speed of the motor MT without starting / stopping the feeding operation itself by ON / OFF of the relay RL. It is also possible to control. Also, the present invention can be applied to a feeder having a feed start / feed stop mechanism other than the screw conveyor.
In addition, the method of detecting the feeding status of farmed fish schools is, for example, detecting the amount of food falling to the lower layer of the fish farm that is not eaten by the farmed fish school or detecting the distribution amount of the farm fish school in the upper layer of the farm. For example, another method may be used. In order to detect the distribution amount of the farmed fish school in the upper layer of the ikesu, the feeding operation may be interrupted when the number of the farmed fish in the upper layer becomes equal to or less than the initial constant.

[0029]

According to the automatic feeding apparatus of the present invention, the feeding can be controlled according to the feeding situation of the farmed fish school, so that the feed efficiency can be improved and the marine pollution can be prevented.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of an automatic feeding device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a feeding operation.

FIG. 3 is a time chart for supplementarily explaining a feeding operation based on the flowchart of FIG. 2;

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 feeder 2 feed controller 3 fish school sensor

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-60-66927 (JP, A) JP-A-4-75544 (JP, A) JP-A-4-1226028 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int .Cl. ⁶ , DB name) A01K 61/02

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A feeding means for feeding food for cultured fish, a detecting means for detecting a feeding state of a farmed fish school in a stake while a feeding operation is being performed by the feeding means, and a detecting means for the detecting means. Feeding control means for controlling a feeding operation of the feeding means based on the detection result, wherein the detecting means is for breeding a school of cultured fish schools during feeding.
An automatic feeding device for detecting the density of fish school near the bottom of a bath . 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the detecting means divides the depth of the stake into a plurality of bands while the feeding operation is being performed by the feeding means.
2. The automatic feeding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the feeding state of the farmed fish school is detected based on the distribution density of the school of fish in a depth range of a band one level above the lowermost layer .