International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 12, Issue 11, November-2021 1009

ISSN 2229-5518

Design and Implementation of a

Remotely Monitored Smart Egg
Incubator
Ohemu Monday Fredrick*1, Umar Tanimu Umar2, Ajimah Nnabueze Edmund3, Zubair
Zuleihat Ohunene4
[email protected]*1, [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected]
Abstract
The Automated smart egg incubator is microcontroller based device that can aid in large
proportion production of chicks for poultry establishment. It entails an automatic transfer
switch that transfers the load to any available source by making the grid the priority to make
sure that there will be steady power supply. To achieve temperature regulation, a DHT22 sensor
is integrated into automatically temperature and humidity monitoring system of the incubation
system that ensures the temperature and humidity are within the required value. An egg tray
was attached to a DC motor to form the egg spinning mechanism to spin the egg at angle 45o
at interval of an hour. Due to temperature and humidity variation, the eggs may hatch at about
21 days. A sound sensor picks the sound from a day old chicks to send message to the farmer,

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alerting the condition of the farm. To monitor the temperature and moist level in the farm, an
LCD displays the status of the incubator temperature and humidity. For remote monitoring, a
GSM module to send temperature and humidity update on request to the farmer, this makes the
system flexible as it reduces stress of visiting the location of the incubator. The result obtained
shows that the system could regulate the temperature within the range of 37oC to 39oC which
was adequate for the egg to hatch. The system can be used for different types of egg as it gives
room for adjustment of the temperature and also adjustment of the spinning time through its
setting bottoms.

1.1 Background of the study temperature and humidity must be

With regard to the agricultural sector, sustained over a period of days, and that is
Nigeria's economy has experienced a most critical requirement for incubation.
gradual decline since the discovery of crude The animal performs this process either by
oil. Petroleum advertisement is a significant lying on it called brooding or burying it
factor in the un-productivity of young under the ground using geothermal heat or
people who move to rural areas in search of by heat produced by rotting vegetation,
white-collar employment [1]. To build earth and other material, created to form a
entrepreneurship opportunities and start-up giant compost heap [2].
projects, there is a need to revisit the The humidity around the egg is also critical;
agricultural sector. This prompted the the egg may lose too much water to the
design and development of an automatic atmosphere if the air is too dry, which can
smart egg incubator with automated power make it difficult or impossible to hatch. The
source that seeks to provide a cost-effective egg will typically become lighter as
way to generate stable revenue in the incubation continues, and the air space
current economic environment. inside the egg will generally become larger
Egg incubation is the mechanism by which due to evaporation from the egg. Adequate
eggs are kept warm under certain humidity is needed to ensure the proper
temperatures and humidity in order to hatching of the eggs [2].
mature and hatch the embryo within after a This natural incubation process, with the
certain number of days [2]. A constant growth of the agricultural sector and its

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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 12, Issue 11, November-2021 1010
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commercialization, cannot keep pace with In this work, implementation of a smart egg
the vast increase in the world's population, incubator with automated power source is a
which has led to an increase in food model that integrate a complete system of
demand. Devices and systems that can automation into a typical incubator.
assist agricultural production are of vital It will consist of a temperature and
importance in order to increase food humidity control system (DHT22), an
production to feed the growing population. automated egg spinner system that is a DC
The Egg Incubator is one of these motor with a gear system to increase the
machines. An Egg Incubator is a system torque connected to the egg tray. An
that provides the egg under incubation with automatic transfer switch that can transfer
constant temperature and humidity during the load from the grid to the solar system
hatching, invariably taking up the work of and vies verse. The design also includes a
an animal for a particular period of days. DC heater (180w) that provides heat for the
Humidity is the measure of water vapour incubator and a cooling fan that provides air
present in the air. The various physical, into the incubator. The GSM module
chemical, and biological processes are (SIM900 mini) is a system designed to
influenced by the level of humidity in the transmit and receive user information
air. The measurement of humidity specifies anywhere and at any time through a
the amount of moisture in the gas that may messaging interface. ATMEGA 328P
be a combination of water vapour, nitrogen, microcontroller is used to program the

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argon, or pure gas, etc. Depending on their entire system's operations and sequences.
measurement units, humidity sensors are of The incubation room consists of two
two kinds. They are a sensor of relative chambers, which are incubation chamber
humidity and a sensor of absolute humidity. and the brooding chamber.
Temperature is a quantity that reflects hot The incubation chamber is the chamber
and cold in physical terms. It is the where the chickens are hatch under constant
manifestation of thermal energy, which is temperature and humidity, and after
the cause of the occurrence of heat in all successful hatching the birds are been drop
matter, a flow of energy when a body is in to brooding chamber.
contact with another that is colder or hotter. The brooding chamber is where the
DHT22 is a digital temperature and chickens are kept comfortable and warm
humidity sensor and use in this proposed after hatching the eggs and can be
project to measure temperature and vaccinated.
humidity of the incubator. Temperature and 1.2 Statement of the problem
humidity are the major parameters to be If power supply to the incubator is not
monitor in the incubation process. constant, incubation process will be aborted
Existing works were designed using and the farmer will suffer huge lost.
ATMEGA 328P for the control of the entire Sometimes the egg may be hatched before
system, while DHT22 was used for the or after the desired day, the far may also
monitoring of temperature and humidity of forget the actual hatching day and be far
the system, a GSM module to send away, there is need for the farmer to be
information about the incubation situation informed when the egg hatched. This
to the famer, and incandescent lamp to project seeks to solve this challenge by
generate heat for the incubation process. demonstrating an automated shift switch
The overall system have inability to provide that can move the load to a backup power
an alternative power source for incubation source available power source with priority
in the event of power failure and also to the grid source. Because the capacity of
inability to detect if the egg hatches before the incubator to attain maximum
or after the slated 21 days. hatchability depends on the ability of the
egg incubator to maintain a constant heat at

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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 12, Issue 11, November-2021 1011
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temperatures of 37oC to 40o C and humidity it into an electrical signal and sends it to the
of (RH) 30-60% for effective incubation. microcontroller for further processing.
Sometimes the incubation may take place 1.6 The significant of the project
before or after the desire date i.e. 21 days. Following the completion of the project:
To resolve this challenge a sound detector  Some electronic components will be
circuit is designed to pick the sound from introduced to me through this
the bird to convert it to an electrical signal, project.
and send it to the microcontroller to  It will allow farmers to produce in
process, the microcontroller now send a large quantities.
code as a text to the user notifying him of  It will address the cost of small-
the incubation state. scale farmers buying industrial egg
1.3 Aim and objectives incubators.
The aim of this work is to implement an
automated smart egg incubator which is 2.3 Review of similar work
achievable using the following objectives: Many people have worked on this topic,
I. To design an automatic transfer and we shall review their work in this
switch circuit that can shift the load section
to any power source available. Abu Musa Bin Muhd Adid [4], created a
II. To implement temperature and smart egg incubator device of different
humidity regulator with GSM types of eggs. Using the PIC18F4550

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module using a microcontroller microcontroller and incandescent lamp in
III. To design the cabinet for the which the limitations include the absence of
incubator with egg spinner wireless transmission of information to the
mechanism and DC fan circuit user and the inability to provide alternative
means of power supply.
1.4 Project motivation Agboola et al. [5], studied the efficacy of
As the Nigerian economy is diverting three incubator models: still air forced air,
towards the agricultural sector, there is a touch incubator, and made used of forced
need for individual to align with the Federal air type to developed cost-effective models
government decision to improve for birds-egg incubator with the
agricultural productivity. This motivated microcontroller model (ATmega328p) and
me to design and construct an automatic a thermostat to measure temperature. The
smart egg incubator with automated power constraint concerns the absence of an
supply. This will reduce the cost of alternative power supply and a wireless
purchasing egg incubators by small-scale infrastructure for user information
poultry farmers. transmission (Agboola et al., 2013).
1.5 Project scope Nithin T Abraham et al. [6], Designed and
Design and construction of an egg implemented a Solar PV Poultry Incubator
incubator with automatic temperature and which can switch between grid and solar,
relative humidity monitoring system using whichthey made of a relay, temperature and
a programmable interface controller heater. It constrain of this project involve
(Arduino Uno)[3] with a microcontroller lack of relaying information to the famer
(ATmega328), a G S M messaging system and inability to know if the egg hatches
(SIM900) for transmitting information and before or after 21 days.
receiving user instructions, a temperature K. Radhakrishnan et al. [7], Designed and
and humidity sensor (DHT22), In the event implemented a fully automated egg
of a power outage, an automatic shift switch incubator, which they made use of
(ATS) to transfer the load to the available ATEMEGA16, LM 35, incandescent lamp,
power source and a sound transducer that liquid crystal display and a DC fan, but no
selects the sound from the birds transforms means of relaying state of the incubator to

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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 12, Issue 11, November-2021 1012
ISSN 2229-5518

the user, they did not put in consideration means that the temperature or humidity is
humidity and no alternative power source to too high or too low. In this project, the DC
the system. heater is use to give the suitable
Okpagu N. [8], designed a Temperature temperature to the egg. By using the water
regulated smart egg incubator device using and controlling fan, it is can make sure the
a microcontroller (AT89C52) for different humidity and ventilation in good condition,
types of eggs in which the limitations a sensor that automatically tracks both
include the absence of wireless information temperature and humidity (DHT22) will be
to the user and the inability to provide used in this project, as it is important to
alternative means of power supply. control both temperature and humidity.
Kyemereh et al. [1], built a large-scale Research gap
incubator for a commercial Arduino-based The previous work made use series of
microcontroller capable of carrying a total microcontroller such PIC18F4550,
of 14,000 quail eggs with incandescent bulb AT89C52, ATMEGA 16, ATMEGA328P
of 100W and DHT22 to monitor the for the circuit coordination and monitoring
temperature and humidity but it’s limitation system, made use of LM35 and
involve lack of alternative source, inability incandescent lamp as source of heat to the
to relay the incubation condition to the system, made use of thermometer, DHT22,
farmer. and DHT22 as temperature and humidity
Yakasai Basher H [9], Ahmadu Bello monitoring system of the incubator system,

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University, Zaria. Design and construction made use of GSM module to relay the
of an automated egg incubator with GSM information to the user, and made use of
interface which he made use of 16x2 LCD display to show the incubation
microcontroller (ATEMEGA328P), GSM condition. But the constrain of these
module, DHT22 to monitor temperature previous project works was that they were
and humidity, LCD to display the condition not be able to provide alternative power
of incubation, and incandescent bulb as source to the system and inability to notify
source of heat but its limitation involve in the user if the egg hatches before or after the
ability to provide an alternative source of slated date.
power to the system and also inability to In this new work which is Design and
detect if the egg hatches before 21 days or Construction of an Automatic Smart Egg
after 21 days. Incubator with Automated Power Switch
Several similar reports have shown a lack System shall address these two constrain
of respect for renewable sources of power, [10].
inability to detect if the egg hatches before In the incubation process, power loss is a
21 days or after 21days, and automated major issue, so this problem can be solved
temperature and humidity control. This by constructing an automatic transfer
proposed project work is therefore intended switch that transfers the load between the
to resolve these issues. grid and the solar system to provide the
The goal of this project is to design and system with a constant power supply. Using
construct an egg incubator system. That can a sound transducer that converts sound
incubate chicken egg and is known as the energy from the birds into electrical energy
Automatic Smart Egg Incubator system and sends it to the microcontroller for
(ASEIS). The ASEIS will have temperature further processing would resolve the
and humidity sensor that can measure the problem of detecting when those eggs hatch
condition of the incubator and will before 21 days and after 21 days. The status
automatically change to the appropriate condition in the ASIES will appear on the
condition for the egg. The health of egg is LCD screen display. DC motor is very
very important for the development of useful in which a spinner will be attached to
embryo within the egg. Improper control it to rotate iron mesh at the bottom side and

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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 12, Issue 11, November-2021 1013
ISSN 2229-5518

automatically change the position of the STARTT

egg for proper incubation. A
microcontroller (ATMEGA 328P) would
be used to monitor the entire system. The GRID

ATMEGA 328P is a type of

microcontroller capable of processing data
from DHT22, DC motor, GSM module, MCU SOLAR ENERGY
automatic transfer switch, and executing (GRID)
?
the control portion to adjust the ASEIS
state.
3.4 Methodology
For this project, C programming language BATTERY

is used to write the program for the

incubation system. The preparation symbol LOAD
of the power system which is the “START”
begins the programming process. The
microcontroller unit is to detect if the power STOP

from grid is available or not. If not it

transfers the load to solar energy and grid Figure 1: Flow Chart for the Power System
been made the priority as shown the figure

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3.10below. START

The preparation symbol of the incubation

process which is the “START” begins the
INITIALIZED THE SYSTEM 5Sec DELAY
programming process. The system is then
initialized, connecting the various units of ACTIVATE THE DC HEATER 6Sec
the circuit. After this, the status of the
incubator system is display on the LCD, the
ACTIVATE THE DC FAN 6Sec
DC heater and DC fan are activated
simultaneously. Then a decision is made; if
the DHT22is active to measure both
temperature and humidity of the incubator, MCU (IS TEMP.& HUMIDITY
if they are within the range (37.5oCand WITHIN
THE RANGE?
38.5o C) it go ahead and activate the
spinning mechanism for incubation process
and the status are display on the LCD, for
the period of 21 days the eggs are expected ACTIVATE SPINNING MECHANISM

to have hatch if not a sound detector circuit

INCUBATE EGGS FOR 20 -22 DAYS
is incorporated to detect sound from the
birds that hatches before or after 21 days.
After the incubation the birds are drop to MCU
brooding chamber and this is where they are (IS THERE SOUND ?)

vaccinated and also a text is send to the user

likewise displaying the status on the LCD
as shown in figure 3.11 below. DROP BIRDS TO BROODING CHAMBER &
SEND MESSAGE TO THE USER

START

Figure 2: Flow Chart for Incubation

Process

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3.4.1 Design of the incubator cabinet

The incubator cabinet is made up of MBF
wood of 1 inch-thick and it is planted with
aluminium foil in other conserved the heat
energy within the incubator chamber. The
incubator cabinet have dimensions of
length35Cm, width 35Cm, and height of
80Cm and these are the outer dimensions of
the cabinet.
𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 = 𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑔ℎ𝑡 ∗ 𝑤𝑖𝑑𝑡ℎ ∗
ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 (𝑐𝑚3 )3.3
𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 = 35 ∗ 35 ∗ 80 = 98000 (𝑐𝑚3 )
35cm

35cm
Figure 4: Proteus simulator displaying on
LCD the auto power

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80cm

Figure 3 : Schematic Dimension of the

Incubator

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Introduction
This chapter presents the description of test
performed on the various sections of the Figure 5: Proteus simulator displaying on
overall system and their corresponding LCD the claim of ownership
results as well as the result of the overall
system performance, in order to verify the
functionality of the system.
4.2Testing
The complete circuit diagram of the
incubator system was simulated on proteus
software before implementation on bread-
board and vero-board. Figures 4, 5 and 6
show the simulated results of the circuit.

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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 12, Issue 11, November-2021 1015
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was found coordinating the operation of the

incubation system.
4.3 Result
After testing the incubator system the
following were obtained as shown in Charts
in Figures 7, 8 and 9 below for everyone
hour

Figure 7: Relationship between the

Figure 6: Proteus simulator displaying on temperature and humidity for the first one
LCD one of the supervisors hour
The components used for the
implementation of this project were test for

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better performance, and were later
transferred to the Vero-Board and soldered.
The heat applied during soldering was just
moderate to avoid damage of the Vero and
the components since most of the
components have low heat resistance.
After the soldering, the system was put Figure 8: Relationship between
under test to ascertain its functionality. The temperature and humidity for the second
circuit was supply with appropriate one hour
voltages from either the grid or solar system
through the automatic transfer switch
circuit and the battery, it was found to
function according to the circuit designed
specifications. The LCD was found
displaying the initial information about the
incubator according the designed and
methodology. The spinning mechanism
was found to move according to the design Figure 9: Relationship between
and timing from the program codes. temperature and humidity for 21 days
The DC heater and DC fan was found to
trigger ON when the temperature was
37oCcorresponding to it humidity and
trigger OFF when the temperature was
above 40o C, the DHT22 was found
monitoring both temperature and humidity
of the incubator chamber, the GSM module
was able to send the require information
according to the programmed codes and
finally microcontroller (ATMEGA 328p)

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4.3.3 G S M Module
The following screenshots show the text
received from G S M module. Figure 10A:
shows the temperature request and Figure
10B: shows when the grid failed. Figure 12: Incubation chamber
A B

Figure 10: A:
B: Grid failed

4.4 Packaging
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Packaging this is putting together the

various part of the incubator system in a
cabinet after the implementation of the Figure 13: Complete Packing of the
circuit diagram on a Vero-Board. Figure 11 Incubator
below shows the top view of the system;
Figure 12 below shows the incubation
chamber, and finally Figure 13 shows
complete packaging. 4.4 Discussion
 It was observed from the above
chart that the temperature is
inversely proportional to the
humidity.
 It was also observed that the DC
heater triggers ON at temperature of
370c with its corresponding
humidity and triggers OFF at
40.10cwith its corresponding
Figure 11: Top view of incubator system humidity.

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CONCLUSION, Microcontroller-based EGG

LIMITATIONANDRECOMMENDATI Incubator,” Int. J. Comput. Appl.,
ON vol. 1, no. 8, 2017.
5.1 Conclusion [2] A. J. . O. and A. M. A. Bamikefa I.
This project was designed with the aim of A, Ogunwuyi O. J, “Design and
being able to maintain the temperature and construction of a smart egg
humidity required for the common species incubator system with GSM base
of the poultry in Nigeria. This will reduce remote access,” Indian J. Sci.
human interaction, increase the accuracy of Technol., vol. 8, no. 6, 2017.
maintaining the desired values of [3] S. Anderson,
temperature and humidity, and increases “chapter3:arduinoschematic,” in
the overall incubation rate. With this the Aduino Uno Simple, 2016, pp. 169–
following objectives were achieved in the 176.
curse of testing the project. [4] B. M. A. Abu-Musa, “Smart Egg
 The automatic transfer switch that Incubator Device of Different Types
shift load between the grid and solar of Eggs,” 2008.
system. [5] B. . Agboola, A, Olaniyi, O.M,
 The egg spinning mechanism that Aliyu, S.O, Ayanwale, “Livestock
spins the egg at interval of one hour productivity in Nigeria:
for one second. development of cost-effective

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 The temperature and humidity mosels for bridge egg incubator,”
monitoring system. Int. J. Eng. Technol. Adv. Eng., vol.
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But the ability to detect in the egg hatches Lizbeth, Mathew, C.A Pradeep,
before or after the slated was not “Design and Implementation of
ascertained because the system has not been Solar PV Poultry Incubator,” Int. J.
putting into for 21 days. Eng. Adv. Technol., vol. 3, no. 3,
5.2 Limitation 2014.
During the course of this project, some [7] K. R. Radhakrishnan, “Design and
limitations were encounter. These include implementation of a fully automated
the poor signal service hindering the use of egg incubator,” Int. J. Adv. Res.
the GSM module, ability to detect in the Electron. Instrum. Eng., vol. 3, no.
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not ascertained because the system has not [8] N. Okpagu, “Development and
been putting into for 21 days, and the Temperature control of smart egg
battery capacity was low. incubator system for various type of
5.3 Recommendation eggs,” Eur. J. Eng. Technol., vol. 4,
The recommendation for anyone willing in no. 2, 2016.
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following: on the means of relaying the and construction of an automated
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capacity. [10] C. Woodford, “How do relay
works?,”
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