1/31/2020

Delta's Automated Management Solution Advances Animal Husbandry with Smart Automation

Animal husbandry has always been a labor-intensive industry. Many animal farmers still hand-rear animals on their farms. Traditional farming and breeding methods are limiting the development of the industry today because of labor shortages and climate change. In Taiwan, for instance, pig farming tends to keep young laborers away due to its toilsome work and outdated facilities. In addition, the hot and humid climate has made it even more difficult to enhance the productivity and management efficiency of pig farmers.

Seeing the needs of the industry, Delta utilizes its automation products and monitoring solution to raise the overall management efficiency of pig barns. Delta's automation products also facilitate automated control and monitoring for on-site hog lots, and the management platform collects operational data and uploads it to the cloud for real-time monitoring and management. This solution can be customized for pig farms of different scales, and allows advanced and automated control such as remote feeding and 24/7 remote monitoring.

Recently, Delta provided its automation and management solution for a pig farmer in Taiwan. This solution adopts Delta's Compact Modular Mid-range Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) AS218 Series and the Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs) DOP-107 Series for environmental control, scheduling and on-site information display. The temperature module and AD measurement module of the AS series PLCs acquire environmental parameters (such as temperature, humidity, pressure, harmful gas concentration, ventilation rate, light levels, and water/food consumption) and compare them with target values for the proper operation adjustment of blowing fans, water pads, dampers and roller blinds via digital or analog output.

The DIAView SCADA System collects the operation and environmental information from the PLCs for analysis and data visualization. The data, once analyzed, is uploaded to the DIACloud cloud platform for real-time monitoring and management via PCs or mobile devices. The pig farmer can supervise the environmental conditions of the pig barns and access the collected parameters at all times. In addition, the DIAView System allows livestreaming from a video surveillance system, bringing more vivid real-time monitoring for pigs in gestation, lactation, nursery, finishing and other hog lots.

The automated management solution benefits customers with the following features.

• Intuitive operating interface and data visualization
Delta's DIAView SCADA System acquires parameters from the on-site controllers and smart sensors, and provides easy-to-read analytics in bar charts or curves. For on-site control and status display, the DOP-107 Series HMIs feature a user-friendly and intuitive interface for parameter settings. The DOP-107 Series HMIs also shows the current status, historical data and operations recorded as reference for on-site adjustment.

• Centralized management with access authority controls up to 6 groups of pig barns
The Compact Modular Mid-range PLC controllers AS218 Series is the master controller for overall management. It achieves central control of up to 6 groups of pig barns, and allows different user authorities for managers and operators.

• Flexible user-defined settings
Users can self-define temperature, IO points on the DOP-107 Series HMIs and the DIAView SCADA System for flexible control and easy configuration.

• Fulfills various growth demands through the coordination of ventilation and precise temperature control
Delta's solution supports up to 15 ventilation grades to coordinate control devices for accurate temperature and ventilation control. In addition, innovative thermometer concepts are adopted to create the correlative configuration among the target and ambient temperatures, providing comfortable environments for pigs of different ages and conditions in different hog lots.

• Email alarms for immediate awareness
The alarm display, query and email functions allow real-time monitoring and immediate reaction to all anomalies and improve management efficiency.

• Storage on both a cloud platform and local devices for historical data access
Delta's Cloud Router DX-2100 Series uploads all the data acquired to the DIACloud cloud platform. Users have access to the data and can store it to their own servers or devices through data exchange for future reference.

Delta's customized automation and management solution advances animal rearing with real-time environment control and highly efficient remote management. The data and history logs build reliable traceability for better management efficiency and higher yield.

News Source:IABG MKT Dept.