Robotic System for Automation of Water Quality Monitoring and Feeding in Aquaculture Shadehouse

This paper describes the implementation of an event-based Internet robotic system to monitor water quality and feed crayfish in a shadehouse, guided by a model-based development methodology. The robotic system consists of a mobile robot to transport a water multiparameter sonde and six containers for distributing food onto the pond surface, a dispatcher unit to dispense a precise amount of food from the containers, and a computer running as a server to define, over the Internet, the feeding and monitoring schedule through a client application. The development methodology starts by making an abstract functionality model to accomplish the tasks. Next, the functionality model is described using the unified modeling language (UML) that specifies the structure and behavior of the system components. Later, the methodology translates the UML dynamic description depicted by statechart diagrams into Petri net (PN) formalism. PN models are merged and analyzed based on their behavioral properties to validate the design as a stable event-based Internet system. Following the UML and PN designs, the robotic system is implemented. Local and remote experiments were performed to show the usefulness of the robot operation via the Internet for intensive cultivation of the freshwater redclaw crayfish ( Cherax quadricarinatus ).