AUTOMATION FOR LOWERING CRAWFISH HARVESTING COSTS

The long-term goal of the proposed seed project is to lower production costs and improve the competitive position of the US crawfish industry. An intermediate-term objective of this project is to evaluate crawfish automation in a commercial setting with funding from larger grants (such as an AFRI Standard Grant). Specific objectives of the current seed project are:Design, build, and test several new crawfish traps that: 1) are sturdier, 2) have higher trapping efficiency (and less escape) and 3) are more conducive to robotic handlingDesign and built a prototype robotic arm that can lift selected trap(s) (finalists from objective one) with live crawfish, harvest the trapped crawfish, re-bait the traps and reset them in the correct vertical position.