A small boat for fish feeding

This study focuses on development of a solar-powered Arduino Mega-driven robotic boat designed for efficient fish feeding in aquaculture. By integrating IoT technology and a mobile app, the project aims to reduce labor costs and improve feeding practices while addressing challenges associated with manual feeding, which previ-ously failed to adequately cover the entire pond area. The research specifically centers on Nile tilapia production. Experimental results show that the robot emulates manual feeding with an average response time of 1.82 s for feeding initiation and 2.17 s for movement initiation. It efficiently distributes feed across a 4000 m2 area in 9 min, outperforming the manual method, which takes 32 min. Fish fed by robotic boat exhibit an 18.71 % weight gain compared to those fed by hand. The robotic boat farm consumes a total of 11.480 kg of feed to produce 7.6 kg, while the hand-fed farm required 16.185 kg of feed to produce 6.5 kg. This results in feed conversion ratios of 1.51 and 2.49, respectively. The study finds an overall cost reduction of 46.13 % due to decreased labor hours. We strongly recommend adopting this robotic boat for optimizing tilapia feeding in earthen ponds.