Systems and methods for chicks sexing and health assessment of newly-hatched chicks

A system for recognizing and segregating chicks by gender according to their feathers pattern comprising:

• a separation unit including at least one first conveyor extending at least partially through said separation unit, said at least one first conveyor controlled by a computerized controller and configured to maintain a forward moving path of said plurality of chicks in a queue;
• a sorting unit configured to receive said plurality of chicks in a queue, said sorting unit includes:
• at least one second conveyor extending at least partially through said sorting unit configured to maintain a forward moving path;
• and,
• at least one container in communication with said at least one second conveyor such that said at least one container is moved vertically between a first position and a second position, while containing a chick of said plurality of chicks so as to cause the chick to spread its wings on its own volition in order to capture the fine distinction between the genders;
• and
• an optic unit including a camera configured to capture at least one image of said chick spreading its wings as said at least one container is moved vertically between said first position and said second position, said at least one image is then transferred to be image processed so as to determine the gender of said chick, wherein the image processing occurs in real-time and includes:
• separating pixels of the chick from a background, analyzing a contour of the chick to select images of the chick with wings outstretched, extracting features relating to the wings, and determining the gender of the chick according to these features;
• and
• a segregating unit controlled by said computerized controller and configured to physically segregate said plurality of chicks based on said determination of gender;
• wherein the at least one second conveyor keeps a forward movement of each container of the at least one container from the sorting unit towards the segregating unit in a horizontal movement, wherein each container has dimensions suited for the chick to refold its wings during the horizontal movement between sorting unit and segregating unit.