Development and Test of Spraying Robot for Anti-epidemic and Disinfection in Animal Housing*

Abstract

In view of the high-intensity labor required to disinfect for anti-epidemic in the livestock and poultry house, an intelligent disinfection spraying robot system was designed. The robot system was composed of four parts, including a carrying vehicle, spraying unit, environmental sensors and a controller. Two operating modes were supported, fully automatic and remote control. For the low-light and less- irritation conditions in livestock and poultry house, a “Magnet-RFID” path detection navigation method was proposed to achieve autonomous movement along the livestock and poultry cages. The air-assisted liquid spray nozzle was designed to achieve simultaneous atomization and diffusion of the disinfectant liquid. A fluid dynamics simulation of the air flow field in the nozzle cavity was performed to optimize the structural parameters of its components. The inclination angles of the conical infusion block and the atomization grid were determined to be 75° and 90°, respectively. Finally, the robot’s navigation and spraying performance were tested in the livestock and poultry house. The experimental results showed that the robot’s vehicle could automatically navigate at the speed of 0.1~0.5 m/s, and the maximal deviation distance between the actual trajectory and the expected path was 50.8 mm. And the robot can spray liquid disinfectant at a flow rate of 200~400 mL/min, forming droplets with a diameter (DV.9) of 51.82~137.23 μm and a deposition density of 116–149 drop per cm2. The research could be a technical support for smart production in the livestock and poultry house.