Meat+Poultry - July 2018 - 38

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

to power the unit.
"You've got a lot of weight concerns and
when you're running an infrared camera, it
pulls a lot of energy," Moshier says. "To get
through a full shift of work, keep the camera at
a manageable weight and maximize durability,
there was quite a bit of engineering in the
customized battery pack."

CURRENT CAMERA

(From left): Tony Jones,
division operations
manager for big bird
business; Karen Christensen,
Ph.D.,senior director
animal wellbeing, North
American Operations; Rob
Hulse, live haul manager,
Springdale complex,
show off Arrowsight's
mobile RVA unit.

38

without any delicate parts exposed to weather
or the rigors of chicken catching. Physically
the dolly system worked well, but the tablet
needed to boot up, crews needed some training
and occasionally the tablet didn't work.
So, Tyson and Arrowsight worked together
through a third iteration of the mobile RVA
camera, which is what crews currently use.
"You can't really simulate too much. You've
got to get out in the field and work with it and
empirically discover what the weaknesses
are and go back and solve them and get back
after it again," says Mark Moshier, president
and COO of Global Industrial & Agribusiness
Solutions with Mount Kisco, New York-based
Arrowsight Inc.
Arrowsight did its best to construct the
final product from off-the-shelf parts easily
attainable on the market. The only exception
was the custom lithium ion battery pack need

MEAT+ POULTRY | 07.18 | www.meatpoultry.com

Similar to the second-generation hardware,
the current camera is a self-contained unit, but
the size and mobility make it more conducive
to the catching environment and considerably
more user friendly for the crews. A box able to
withstand harsh environments with militarygrade fittings houses the camera and the
software. Heavy magnets allow for attachment
to a hand truck for the catching, and a fork
truck for transport to the trailer.
Tyson's live haul operations office houses
the camera bank set up by Arrowsight, and
each crew takes two cameras out per trip,
one for the hand truck to view the catching,
and one for the fork truck to view transport
from the house to the trailer. Once back at
live haul, cameras are docked for power and
communications cords are connected. Once
this is done, Arrowsight has access to all video
recorded on that camera.
In the chicken house and on the fork truck,
the video stays clear and will switch to infrared
if light quality isn't sufficient. Currently Tyson
uses the mobile RVA cameras just in the
Springdale complex. Five contract catching
crews operate in the complex. While one set
of cameras goes out with the crew another
set is docked for audit and charging, totaling
10 cameras for the complex. Tyson plans to
continue rolling mobile RVA out within its big
bird business unit.

GAME FILM
Once cameras are docked at the camera
bank, Arrowsight begins its audit. Arrowsight
chooses an agreed upon number of minutes
from the day's footage to audit and flags
"potential occurrences." Potential occurrences
represent what auditors believe to be a
problem or opportunity for improvement.
Rob Hulse, live haul manager for the
Springdale complex, receives an email citing
potential occurrences from the audited
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