Cost-Effective Active Laser Scanning System for Depth-Aware Deep-Learning-Based Instance Segmentation in Poultry Processing

The poultry industry plays a pivotal role in global agriculture, with poultry serving as a major source of protein and contributing significantly to economic growth. However, the sector faces challenges associated with labor-intensive tasks that are repetitive and physically demanding. Automation has emerged as a critical solution to enhance operational efficiency and improve working conditions. Specifically, robotic manipulation and handling of objects is becoming ubiquitous in factories. However, challenges exist to precisely identify and guide a robot to handle a pile of objects with similar textures and colors. This paper focuses on the development of a vision system for a robotic solution aimed at automating the chicken rehanging process, a fundamental yet physically strenuous activity in poultry processing. To address the limitation of the generic instance segmentation model in identifying overlapped objects, a cost-effective, dual-active laser scanning system was developed to generate precise depth data on objects. The well-registered depth data generated were integrated with the RGB images and sent to the instance segmentation model for individual chicken detection and identification. This enhanced approach significantly improved the model’s performance in handling complex scenarios involving overlapping chickens. Specifically, the integration of RGB-D data increased the model’s mean average precision (mAP) detection accuracy by 4.9% and significantly improved the center offset—a customized metric introduced in this study to quantify the distance between the ground truth mask center and the predicted mask center. Precise center detection is crucial for the development of future robotic control solutions, as it ensures accurate grasping during the chicken rehanging process. The center offset was reduced from 22.09 pixels (7.30 mm) to 8.09 pixels (2.65 mm), demonstrating the approach’s effectiveness in mitigating occlusion challenges and enhancing the reliability of the vision system.