Automated Fertilized Duck Egg Sorting System Using Image Processing

This paper presents an automated system used in sorting fertilized duck eggs according to gender. The system accepts fertilized eggs in a feeding conveyor and segregates them into male and female. A computer is used to execute a program to process and analyze the duck egg image captured by a camera. Using a microcontroller interface, the same computer controls all moving parts including the actual egg segregation. Basically, the gender of duck eggs is determined based on the shape. It is observed by people in the duck egg industry that male duck eggs differ in shape from their female counterparts. Male duck eggs are somewhat more pointed than female duck eggs. In the proposed system, the eccentricity of duck eggs is used in determining the gender. Test results show that the accuracy of the proposed automated duck egg sorting system is higher than manual sorting. Eggs are also sorted faster and with more consistency when using the proposed system. The automated sorting system has reached an optimum accuracy of more than 91% in segregating male from female duck eggs.