The Whiteleg shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei, is the most widely produced shrimp species worldwide. This species has exhibited persistent increases in global production over the past decade. One of the most marked production problems with this shrimp species is the uneven growth among individuals, which can lead to higher cannibalism, imprecise feeding and uneven product size.

This can be prevented by size-grading the animals, but present methods are very invasive and can be stressful and harmful to the shrimp, as individuals may be injured or even jump out of the rearing tank. As the negative implications and disadvantages can be very high, live grading is seldom carried out by producers.

The Goal of the Grade aid project is the development of an animal friendly grading device for live shrimp to improve animal welfare and growth performance.