DEVELOPMENT OF AN AUTOMATED CONTROL FISH FEEDER DEVICE USING A BLOWER SYSTEM

Abstract

This study developed an automated fish feeding machine for the dispensing of feeds in fish aquaculture. Farmers have historically experienced losses due to fish death caused by irregular feeding of fishes at the expected time. The automated fish feeder machine eradicates this problem because it involves little human intervention and makes feeding of fishes easier. The body of the machine is made from mild steel and it is powered by a 20V D.C blower. The machine is automatically controlled by an Arduino microcontroller and a relay switch. The Arduino microcontrollercontrols the relay switch, and based on the written program on the Arduino board, the relay controls the blower, which discharges the feed into the pond. The machine, when switched on discharge the feeds into the pond for 10 seconds and automatically turns off after another 10 seconds. The ON and OFF period of the machine can be changed by rewriting the program on the Arduino board. The machine was tested with different sizes of fish feeds (6 mm,4 mm and 3 mm) using a constant mass of 3 kg feeds and a dispensing period of 10 seconds. The machine dispense feeds based on the aforementioned feed sizes at a distance of 0.248 m, 0.304m, 0.457 m and a mass flow rate of 0.12 kg /s, 0.15 kg /s, 0.2 kg /s and the weight of feed discharged are 1.02 kg, 1.5 kg, 2.03 kg respectively. The results generated satisfy that the device will perform efficiently and boast growth of fish farming.