The Australian chicken meat industry predominantly uses sheds to house chickens. Sheds are typically inspected 3 times per day, however continual monitoring is required for early intervention of chicken stress. In particular, chickens are susceptible to heat stress which is affected by chicken behaviours, e.g. chicken sitting, not grouping together, or grouping together.

 

Previously, The University of Southern Queensland National Centre for Engineering in Agriculture has demonstrated lowcost remote monitoring using smart cameras and onboard image analysis to perform tasks like cattle condition scoring, pig weight estimation and crop monitoring in research projects. See project information at www.usq.edu.au/ncea and https://eportfolio.usq.edu.au/user/mccarthc.
 
The project will develop a proof-of-concept system for monitoring chickens and their behaviour in chicken sheds, for the purpose of immediate remote notification to the shed supervisor for events that may indicate conditions that affect flock welfare.