Conveyor belt automatic vaccine injection system (AVIS) for flatfish based on computer vision analysis of fish shape

Traditionally, vaccination of fish is carried out manually which requires considerable cost, time and health risk. In particular, because a person has to inject a number of fish in a such short period of time, the injector is under stress and in exposed to risk of self-injection, in which he/she may insert a syringe into his/her own hand. In order to resolve this issue, fast, accurate and automated vaccination systems have been developed in countries with an advanced aquaculture industry, including Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and the United States. However, this development is limited to the development of systems for round fish because round fish like salmon are mostly farmed in these countries. Thus, different automated vaccination systems for flatfish need to be developed in countries where flatfish aquaculture is prevalent. In this study, we have demonstrated a conveyor belt automatic vaccine injection system (AVIS) for flatfish based on a vaccination algorithm utilizing computer vision analysis of fish shape. This vaccination algorithm is designed according to correlations derived from a statistical analysis of flatfish's body height, length, and thickness, and the location of the vaccine injection so that it can be used for vaccine injection without any additional separate presets. The proposed AVIS allowed for an injection rate of 2800 per h on average. The vaccination of flatfish with a body length of up to 500 mm was possible, even when the orientation of the fish was arbitrary. The injection errors in various sizes of flatfish ranged from 0 to 1.9 mm.