Scientific African 10 (2020) e00618

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Scientific African
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/sciaf

Design and prototyping of a low-cost, energy efficient eggs

incubator in developing countries: A case study of Cameroon
Pascalin Tiam Kapen a,b,c,∗, Mohamadou Youssoufa c,d, Momo Foutse c,
Harold Manfouo c, Franck Oscar Njotchui Mbakop c
a
URISIE, University Institute of Technology Fotso Victor, University of Dschang, P.O Box 134, Bandjoun, Cameroon
b
UR2MSP, Department of Physics, University of Dschang, P.O Box 67, Dschang, Cameroon
c
BEEMo. Lab., Higher Institute of Science and Technology, Université des Montagnes, P.O Box 208, Bangangte, Cameroon
d
University Institute of Technology of Ngaoundere, University of Ngaoundere, P.O Box 455, Ngaoundere, Cameroon

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Farming in general and poultry in particular is a back bone to Africa’s development and
Received 28 February 2019 self-sufficient in term of food. However, in a country like Cameroon, traditional poultry ac-
Revised 8 May 2020
counts for more than 70%. Due to this situation, more than 43% of newly hatched chicks
Accepted 28 October 2020
do not survive thereby causing a lot of loss both financially and in terms of availability of
chicken as food. This paper aims to bring a solution to this problem. The paper deals with
Editor: Dr. Benji Gyampoh the prototyping of an energy efficient eggs incubator in view of providing a solution to
the poultry sector in developing countries. The system hardware is composed of an enclo-
Keywords:
sure, mechanical and electronic parts. The enclosure is made of plywood, aluminum and
Low-cost eggs incubator
glass wool in order to minimize the heat loss across the multi-layered wall. The mechan-
Temperature and humidity regulation
Poultry sector ical part comprises of electronically controlled mechanical jacks. The electronic module is
Multi-layered wall constituted of a temperature and humidity generator and measurement circuits, a con-
Heat transfer trol circuit, a communication module and a microcontroller in charge of monitoring and
controlling the operation of the system. Using Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) con-
troller, the mathematical modeling of heat transfer permitted the optimization of energy
efficiency of the system. The system has a capacity of 600 eggs. The eggs were incubated
at a temperature of 37.5°C and a humidity of 45.5% after a preheating stage of 30 min. The
developed incubator system gave a hatching rate of 87.27%.
© 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of African Institute of
Mathematical Sciences / Next Einstein Initiative.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Introduction

In recent years, countries in Africa have seen a steady growth in the poultry industry [1]. Although many projects are
implemented at the national and regional levels in Africa, more than 80% of the continent’s poultry production systems
are run by private individuals or families through traditional means [2]. Apart of being a source of protein, poultry farming
provides ready cash for villagers. These financial gains help to sustain the village economy and limitation of urban migration.

∗
Corresponding author at: URISIE, University Institute of Technology Fotso Victor, University of Dschang, P.O Box 134, Bandjoun, Cameroon.
E-mail address: fpascalin20 0220 03@gmail.com (P. Tiam Kapen).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sciaf.2020.e00618
2468-2276/© 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of African Institute of Mathematical Sciences / Next Einstein Initiative. This is an
open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
P. Tiam Kapen, M. Youssoufa, M. Foutse et al. Scientific African 10 (2020) e00618

Fig. 1. Cameroon map (Latitude: 6° North, Longitude: 12° East) [7].

The benefits from family poultry are mostly women as they are the principal caretakers of the poultry [3]. These individuals
or families in the overwhelming majority of cases use traditional methods of poultry farming. This causes their efficiency
to be low [4–6]. In Cameroon (see Fig. 1) [7], traditional poultry accounts for more than 70% of the estimated 19 million
chickens nationwide [8]. The traditional poultry sector depends on the ability of the local breed to survive within harsh
environments. In a survey, it was found that only about 43% of the hatched chicks survived due to the lack of a conducive
environment [9]. Through artificial incubation, the production of chicken can be more efficient. Artificial incubation of eggs
seeks to recreate the conditions that the mother bird provides to the eggs until hatching. Artificial incubators produced
in developed countries are not economically accessible for the population of developing countries [10–13]. However, these
incubators are expensive and not suited for low income African farmers. There is a need for the development of low-cost
and energy efficient incubator devices that are destined for local African farmers. This will allow easy accessibility not only
of the technology but also of the device in order to contribute to the accomplishment of the African Union Agenda 2063 [14].
Center to the design of an incubator is temperature and humidity regulation, eggs turning and air ventilation [15]. Research
work has been done to explore the effects of heat on the development of embryos [16]. A difference in temperature of 1–
1.5°C can affect the embryonic development in terms of time of incubation before hatching, weight and color of the chicks
[17]. Simulations of embryonic development until hatching showed that the optimum incubation temperature is 37.8 °C
[18]. Low cost incubators made from local materials are quite common in developing countries. An automatic egg incubator
has been developed in which the temperature was maintained at 37°C and humidity of 60%. Although the walls of the
incubator were made of two layers, the authors considered that their wall was single layer in their mathematical model
[19]. In another development, the temperature was set to 37°C and humidity to 56.15% and heat loss was considered for
all walls differently depending of the material of the wall. However, their operating temperature and humidity varied from
36°C to 38y°C and 55% to 60% respectively during operation [20]. A third system was developed wherein the temperature
was varied between 37 °C and 37.5 °C until hatching. The humidity was maintained at 55%. The problem with the design
is that it was a single wall incubator made of wood and therefore loses heat very fast. This means high consumption of
electric power used for the heating [21]. To help solve the problem of intermittent shortage of electricity, an incubator

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was developed that made use of solar power through solar panels for heating [22]. Design and simulation of temperature
control of a smart egg incubator system for various types of eggs was developed recently. Proportional-Integral-Derivative
(PID) controller was implemented to achieve desirable transient response of the incubator [23]. This paper describes the
development and prototyping of an energy efficient low-cost incubator system. Local materials were used and multiple walls
were implemented to prevent heat loss from the system. The heating was done using low power 12 V heater. A system of
partial differential equations was used to model the heat transfer across the multi-layered wall and solved using Maple
software. The final equipment was then tested.

Material and methods

Governing equations of the PID controller

A Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller is a control loop feedback mechanism commonly used in industrial
control systems. It consists of a proportional element, an integral element, and a derivative element, all three connected in
parallel. The PID control scheme is named after its three correcting terms, whose sum constitutes the manipulated variables
where all of them take the error as input. A PID controller calculates an error value as the difference between a measured
process variable and a desired set-point. This controller attempts to minimize the error by adjusting the process through
use of a manipulated variable. The transfer function of the standard PID algorithm is:
dε (t )
f (t ) = K p e(t ) + Ki ε (τ )dζ + Kd (1)
dt
where K p , Ki and Kd are proportional, integral and derivative gains respectively. The error is ε (t ) = Set Point − P rocess Out put,
tis the time and ζ is the variable of integration. Temperature and humidity are the parameters to be controlled in the devel-
oped system. For temperature, the error (ε (t ) )between the set point (SP) and the measured (PO) temperatures (in degree
Celsius) is fed to the PID controller which transforms it into voltage ( f (t )) used to control the heater. The control of humid-
ity follows the same process.

Mathematical modeling of heat transfer in our incubator

The heat transfer in the eggs incubator has been modeled by considering the following equation:
ϕi + ϕg = ϕo + ϕst (2)
where ϕi is the input heat flux in Watt; ϕg is the heat flux generated internally in Watt; ϕois the heat loss in Watt and ϕst is
the stored heat flux in Watts. Here, ϕi is equivalent to the power of the heating element and ϕg is negligible as there is no
internal heat source. Eq. (2) then can be rewritten as:
ϕst = ϕi − ϕo (3)
Each of these quantities are given as [24]:
∂T
ϕst = ρvCv (4)
∂t
ϕi = 100 W (5)

ϕo = ϕo1 + ϕo2 + ϕo3 (6)

where ρ (kg/m3 ) is the air density; v(m3 )
is the volume of the incubation chamber; Cv (J/kg/o K)
is the specific heat capacity
of air at constant volume; T (o K) is the temperature; ϕo1 , ϕo2 and ϕo3 are the heat loss across front-back walls, left-right walls
and top-bottom walls respectively. Each of the walls is made of three layers of different materials: Aluminum, glass wool
and plywood. The layout of the different layers is shown in Fig. 2.
Where eA , e p and eg are the thicknesses of the Aluminum, plywood and glass wool layers respectively.
This arrangement was chosen based on the thermal conductivity and moisture properties and strength of the materials
to provide optimal insulation and high strength to ensure the mechanical stability of the incubator. The thermal conduc-
tivities of Aluminum, glass wool and plywood are 250 W/m/o K, 0.04 W/m/o K and 0.13 W/m/o K (at 12% Moisture Content)
respectively [25,26]. However, that of the plywood increases with increase in moisture. Therefore using just plywood would
provide less thermal insulation the high humidity that an egg incubator functions. This is why in the systems reviewed
above, the temperature and humidity vary a lot during incubation. The use of glass wool which has a better thermal insu-
lation in a multi-layered wall in this work helps to eliminate this problem. The role of each layer in this multi-layered wall
is (i) the Aluminum sheet protects the plywood found behind it since the thermal conductivity of the plywood is affected
by humidity and ensures the rapid increase in temperature during heating. (ii) The plywood behind the Aluminum provides
a rigid protection of the for the glass wool and also improves thermal insulation. (ii) The glass wool is the main insulating
material and since it has a low density as compared wood (48Kg/m3 for glass wool and 680Kg/m3 for plywood), a large

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P. Tiam Kapen, M. Youssoufa, M. Foutse et al. Scientific African 10 (2020) e00618

Fig. 2. Layout of the different layers of each wall.

amount of it can be used to ensure optimal thermal insulation. (iv) The outer plywood on its part provides protection for
the glass wool from environmental contamination and also provides a rigid surface on which a sheet of leather was glued
so that the equipment is esthetically presentable. The following provides the mathematical modeling of the heat transfer
across this multilayered wall.
Assuming that opposite walls are identical, the heat loss by conduction and by convection of the enclosure can be sum-
marized in Eqs. (7)–(9).
 
T (t ) − Tatm
ϕo1 = 2 2e e
(7)
1
h1 Lh
+ λeALh + λ p Lh
p
+ λg gLh + 1
h2 Lh
 
A

T (t ) − Tatm
ϕo2 = 2 2e e
(8)
1
h1 lh
+ λeAlh + λ p lhp + λgglh + 1
h2 lh
 
A

T (t ) − Tatm
ϕo3 = 2 2e e
(9)
1
h1 Ll
+ λeALl + λ p Llp + λggLl + 1
h2 Ll
A

Here,
Tatm is the temperature of atmosphere in o K;
h1 and h2 are convection coefficients for front-back walls and left-right walls respectively in W/m2 /o K;
λA , λ p and λg are the thermal conductivities of Aluminum, plywood and glass wool respectively in W/m/o K;
L, l, eand hare the length, the width, the thickness and the height of the incubator respectively in m. t is the time in s.
Now by replacing (4)–(9) into (3), the differential equation modeling the heat transfer in the incubator reads
∂T
309.66396 = 1231.5916 − 3.795377T (10)
∂t
It was simulated using Maple software, and the following curves were obtained which correspond to different values of
the thickness of glass wool:
It can be observed from Fig. 3, that by increasing the glass wool thickness, it is possible to rapidly reach the set tem-
perature. It can be also noticed that there is a good agreement between the experimental data (Fig. 12) and simulated data
(Fig. 3). The humidity profile is shown in Fig. 13. It can be also observed a good agreement with the temperature profile.

Incubator design

The incubator has been designed in four major steps.

Enclosure of the incubator

The incubator enclosure was first designed in CATIA software to get an overview of the dimensions and physical appear-
ance of the equipment. It is built on a steel frame covered with a layer of anti-rust and a size of 110 × 72 × 70 cm to
make it solid so as to withstand the weight of the eggs throughout the incubation period. The walls of the incubator were
then built on this steel frame in such a way as to avoid any loss of heat in order to maintain a stable temperature within
it. Ventilation holes are provided to renew the air and humidity in the enclosure. The box constructed was made up of a

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Fig. 3. Temperature from simulation results for different values of glass wool thickness.

Fig. 4. The block diagram of the incubator system.

multi-layered wall. On one of the side of this box is a door with plexiglass window on it that will allow the user to observe
the interior of the enclosure during the incubation operation. A heater and a fan used to homogenize the temperature were
placed at the bottom of the enclosure.

Electronic module
This module consists of the electronics used in the system. The block diagram presenting the interconnection of the
modules and operation of the system is shown in Fig. 4.

2- Power supply

The power supply of the system is a 12 V stabilized power supply which receives a 220 V input voltage and sends 12 V
and 5 V DC voltage and a 30 A current to its outputs. This power supply has been used considering Table 1. Fig. 5 shows
the power supply. Even though a 220 V power supply is presented here, the system is operated at a maximum of 12 V. This

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Table 1
Summary of electrical characteristics of the different components.

Component Quantity Voltage (V) Electrical current (A) Power (W)

Integrated circuit L293D 01 12 1.2 14.4

Jack 01 12 4.167 50
Fan 04 12 0.3 × 4 14.4
Heater 01 12 16.66 200
Humidifier 01 05 0.5 2.5
GSM Module 01 05 0.36 1.8
LCD Display 01 12 0.13 0.65
Arduino Mega 2560 01 05 0.05 0.6
Total 24.27 284.34

Fig. 5. 30 A stabilized power supply used in the system.

Fig. 6. (a) 12 V, 200 W electric resistance heater, (b) control circuit of the heater.

means that the system can also be powered from solar power. In fact, since the whole system only consumes 284.34 W of
DC power this can be powered by a standard 360 W solar panel with a12V battery bank.

2- Electric resistance heater

A metal-based electric resistance heater is shown in Fig. 6(a) and is powered by 12 V and has a power rating of 100 W.
It is the main heating source of the system.
To guarantee a constant and uniform temperature at every point of the incubation chamber, we fixed the heating resis-
tances and blower fans at the back of wall of the incubation chamber on a support with holes to let it air in and out.
A control circuit (Fig. 6(b)) of the heating resistor consists of a bipolar transistor and MOSFET. To be able to regulate and
support the load current of the heater, a PWM signal drives a bipolar transistor (TIP41C) which in turn switches on and off
a MOSFET (IRLB4132) that can support the large amount of load current without destroying it. In this way the chamber is
heated gradually. 12 V fans were used to further homogenize the air in the enclosure. Ambient air entering the enclosure
passes through an antibacterial filter.

2- Humidifier

It consists of an ultrasonic humidifier (Fig. 7) which is an electrical device with ceramic membranes that vibrate at
a given frequency (1.65 MHz); when water passes over it, it is literally transformed into a mist made of extremely fine
droplets (less than 5 μm). The performance of the equipment depends highly on the moisture content during the incubation

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Fig. 7. Ultrasonic humidifier used to generate humidity.

Fig. 8. Temperature and humidity sensor.

and hatching phase. Therefore the humidity level in the incubation chamber is accurately controlled through the humidifier
that is be driven by a PWM signal via a transistor.

2- Temperature and humidity measurement module

The acquisition of temperature and humidity was based on the DHT22 digital sensor. It senses temperature and humidity
and gives digital values corresponding to both (Fig. 8).

2- Electronic jack for egg turning

Eggs need movement for their development, in order to prevent the embryo from sticking to the shell. To do this, the
system has a module that performs this task. It consists of an electric motor that gets command from the microcontroller
and moves the piston of the jack up and down depending of the command. The piston is attached to a series of trays on
which the eggs are placed (Fig. 9). This allows the automatic turning of eggs (change the position of eggs) in the incubator
chamber. The jack has been positioned so that eggs were set at a 45° angle, and after a 90° turning; they face 45° in the
other direction.

2- Assembly of the electronic module

The electronic control module based on Arduino Mega 2560 board is the main controller. It controls all the other modules
of the system. A LCD is used as to display the current temperature. Fig. 10 shows the assembled electronic module.

Human-machine interface
This module allows the user to communicate with the device via two interfaces; keyboard and GSM:

2- Keyboard

It allows the input of the incubation parameters for the operation of the system.
This module allows the user to communicate with the device by setting up the following:

2- On/Off: to turn on the equipment and its operation indicator;

2- Set the incubation temperature, humidity, number of turning and number of days of incubation
2- Restart the device;
2- Manually turn over the eggs, change temperature and humidity;

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Fig. 9. Eggs turning mechanism setup.

Fig. 10. The assembled electronic module.

2- A screen shows all manipulation carried out on the device and the operating (real-time) parameters.
2- GSM communication module

The module establishes wireless communication between a phone and the incubator. The module is based on the
SIM900 SIMCOM GSM module. The module allows the microcontroller to send SMS, MMS, GPRS and audio using sending
AT commands via GSM networks.
To interact with the equipment a library was implemented that integrates several functions permitting the interaction
with the incubator. The different interaction commands (keywords) are as follows:

• ” incub ” which is used to have the parameters of incubations in real time

• ” para ” used to get the parameters of set by the user
• ” restart ” used to reboot the system in case of an emergency
• "stop" used to stop the operation of the system
• ” chicken ” used to start a chicken egg incubation wave
• ” on ” used to start a predefined incubation pattern in the device
• ” off ” used to stop a predefined incubation pattern in the device

System calibration
The calibration of our device was performed as follows: The temperature of the enclosure during the heating process
was measured using a mercury thermometer. The temperature was varied from ambient temperature to about 40 °C. The
value from the digital temperature sensor and the temperature from the mercury thermometer are both recorded after every

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Fig. 11. (a) The assembled incubator system, (b) the incubator in operation.

1 min. These two values are then used to find the transfer function of the system. It was ensured that the humidity was
constant throughout the calibration process.

Results and discussions

The final equipment is shown in Fig. 11(a). The incubation process starts by the verification of all the system modules
(Temperature and humidity generators and sensors, GSM, RTC etc.) Then a preheating phase is launched to allow the in-
cubation chamber to be in the proper conditions of incubation. This preheating phase takes about 1 h. Once the required
temperature and humidity were reached (37.6 °C and 45.5% respectively), the subjects (eggs) are put into the incubation
chamber and the incubation is started (Fig. 11(b)).
The temperature evolution as a function of time was registered and plotted on a graph (Fig. 12). The temperature was
measured every 5 min for about 500 h (about 21 days). The curve shows that for a set temperature of 37.50 °C was main-
tained throughout the incubation period. The sudden fall in temperature values that are random is due to the intermittent
cuts in electrical energy, water recharge phases for moisture production and also during the candling phase of eggs (7th and
14th day).
The relative humidity inside the incubation chamber also showed a somewhat steady response (Fig. 13). As explained
before, the small variations are mainly due to frequent power cuts. Other causes of this variation include reduced amount
of water in the water bath used to generate vapor and change in weather condition. The large step change around 450 h
(19 days) on this curve represents the beginning of the hatching phase, which requires at least 65% humidity. This is done
to soften the egg shells so as to permit the chicks to easily break it and come out.
During the incubation cycle, the main work is to ensure the proper development of incubation including the recharge of
water for the production of moisture necessary for good development of embryos present in eggs. Fig. 14(a) and (b) show
the evolution of the air chamber during mirages performed on the 7th and 14th day of incubation. Fig. 15(a) and (b) show
hatching of some chicks after 21 days of incubation. It should be noted here that to ensure a high rate of hatching, the
incubated eggs paid play a very important role, as not all eggs are suitable for incubation. Mirage on the seventh day will
indicate whether an egg is fertilized. If it is not, it can be roved and replaced by a new one.
Compared to existing incubators, the proposed system has an overall good performance such as it is power efficient, can
be operated with a solar panel at 12 V and a hatching rate of 87.27%. Table 2 shows the comparison of the proposed system
with other commercially available incubators. It should be noted that the cost of the commercially available incubators does
not take into account transportation fees, custom fees and additional fees.

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Fig. 12. Temperature profile obtained through experiment during 21 days of incubation.

Fig. 13. Humidity profile obtained through experiment during 21 days of hatching.

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Fig. 14. Evolution of the egg after (a) seven days, (b) fourteen days.

Fig. 15. Chicks obtained after 21 days of incubation.

Table 2
Comparison between existing eggs incubators and the one developed in this work.

Operating Power
No. Name/ Model Capacity Hatching rate supply Cost

1 Automatic Large Egg Incubator 1584 chicken eggs 96% 110–240V US$764.00
[27]
2 Factory supply 352 capacity 352 chicken eggs 98% 220V US$186.00
Automatic large chicken egg
incubator [28]
3 JF 480 large automatic digital 480 480 chicken eggs 96% 110 V/220V US$150.00
eggs incubator [29]
4 Proposed incubator 600 chicken eggs 87.27% 12V US$200.00

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Conclusion

In this paper, a low-cost automatic eggs incubator has been designed and implemented. The concepts of Proportional-
Integral-Derivative (PID) controller and heat transfer allowed the modeling of the enclosure and the electronic circuit of the
incubator. The equipment has been tested for functionality and used to incubate eggs until hatching. Numerical simulations
performed with Maple software were in good agreement with experimental results. A hatching rate of 87.27% has been
obtained. This device can be a promising solution for the poultry sector in developing countries.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the reviewers for the constructive reviews. This research did not receive any specific grant
from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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[26] Thermal Properties of plywood; Available at: https://www.performancepanels.com/thermal-properties ; Accessed on 08 May 2020.
[27] Automatic Large Egg Incubator; Available at: http://tiny.cc/hbeooz , Accessed on 08 May 2020
[28] Factory supply 352 capacity Automatic large chicken egg incubator; Available at: http://tiny.cc/tmhooz , Accessed on 08 May 2020.
[29] JF 480 large automatic digital 480 eggs incubator; Available at: http://tiny.cc/anlooz , Accessed on 08 May 2020.

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