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Highlights

A fractal matrix model was established to characterize the cracks on the surfaces of perforated embryo eggs.

Abstract. In response to the problems of low accuracy and unsatisfactory consistency in manual identification, a method for characterizing and identifying cracks on perforated embryo eggs is proposed based on fractal theory. Due to the intersection of the fractal dimensions of a few qualified and cracked embryo eggs, an improved fractal box-counting algorithm was used to characterize the overall characteristics of the cracks and construct an 8 x 8 fractal matrix using image segmentation technology. Based on the morphology and structure, the eggshell was divided into three regions and five characteristic variables expressing perforation cracks were extracted. Two significant variables were screened using the stepwise method to construct a linear discriminant function. Ten-day-old embryonated eggs of white phoexix black-bone chickens were selected as experimental materials. Embryo egg perforation and image acquisition devices were established. Then, crack recognition experiments were carried out. The accuracy of crack determination was 98.89%, and the identification time for a single egg was less than 1.24 s. The research results can lay a solid theoretical and practical foundation for the development of automatic recognition systems for perforated embryo eggs.