Project number: 2019-151
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $115,649.00
Principal Investigator: Jan Strugnell
Organisation: James Cook University (JCU)
Project start/end date: 14 Sep 2020 - 30 Aug 2022
Contact:
FRDC

Need

Determining the number and size distribution of abalone present at various stages of production is critical information for effective stock management. Currently the Australian abalone aquaculture industry spends in the order of $25,000 per annum, per farm, gathering this information by hand. However, the resulting data is of mediocre quality, is limited in its scope, and collecting the data causes stress to the animals (as it is removed from the water) which can compromise growth and survival. Automated counting and measuring of abalone will increase farm efficiency and productivity in the short term and, in the longer term, will provide an advanced platform for further R & D improvements including accurate data collection during experimental trials (e.g. feeds, temperature). Artificial intelligence and machine learning has now matured to a point that accurately counting and measuring abalone is possible using this approach, however specific application to the abalone industry is yet to be achieved. This project would involve the development, training and validation of a machine learning model to identify, segment and measure quantitative abalone traits in production systems and, render the product data to be accessible and applicable for farmers.

Objectives

1. To develop and implement artificial intelligence as a method for accurately measuring and counting abalone at nursery, weaning and grow out.

Final report

ISBN: 978-0-6457422-6-8
Authors: Kurt Schoenhoff Kyungmi Lee Jason Holdsworth Hemmaphan Suwanwiwat Jan Strugnell Ickjai Lee
Final Report • 2022-12-01 • 3.90 MB
2019-151-DLD.pdf

Summary

This report provides detail on the development of a machine learning tool as a method for counting and measuring abalone at various stages of production. The study was carried out on hybrid abalone with ~2000 images (nursery, weaner and growout stage) collected from Southern Ocean Mariculture and Yumbah. A deep learning based method for counting abalone (nursery stage) and counting and measuring abalone (weaner and growout stages) was successfully developed and trained. A user-friendly cross platform software application was developed to enable use of the tool by abalone farmer. The tool should make stock assessment faster, more accurate and provide less stress to farmers. The project was carried out from 2019-2022 by the James Cook University Information Technology team in Cairns (Kyungmi Lee, Ickjai Lee, Jason Holdsworth, Hemmaphan Suwanwiwat, Kurt Schoenhoff) in with contributions from Phoebe Arbon (who held a 2020 Science and Innovation Award for young people in agriculture, fisheries and forestry with a similar time frame) and Jan Strugnell.

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Industry