Development of Wireless Sensor Network to Detect Lameness in Dairy Cows

Bovine mastitis, lameness, and calving are three major problems in the dairy farming industry. They lead to economic losses and decreased animal welfare. With the industrialization of dairy farms, these problems are magnified due to the lack of skilled labor. This work introduces a design for a wire...

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Main Author: Nguyen, Thanh Nha
Other Authors: Hunter, Ian
Format: Thesis
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2022
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/144823
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author Nguyen, Thanh Nha
author2 Hunter, Ian
author_facet Hunter, Ian
Nguyen, Thanh Nha
author_sort Nguyen, Thanh Nha
collection MIT
description Bovine mastitis, lameness, and calving are three major problems in the dairy farming industry. They lead to economic losses and decreased animal welfare. With the industrialization of dairy farms, these problems are magnified due to the lack of skilled labor. This work introduces a design for a wireless sensor network to automate the health monitoring of every cow on a farm. Through the constant monitoring of health statistics, we can make a prediction about the early onset of mastitis, lameness, and calving and therefore reducing the burdens on the farmers. The network architecture is designed to accommodate a large number of cows (1000s) and the size of dairy farms (area >1500000 m²) by combining a short-range and a long-range communication protocol (Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and LoRa). This work also explores the use of IMUs for lameness detection in walking gaits. Taking advantage of the holonomic constraints of animal limbs, Principal Component Analysis is able to compress the highly correlated data of locomotion into a smaller dimension in which abnormal gaits can be differentiated.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1448232022-08-30T03:58:04Z Development of Wireless Sensor Network to Detect Lameness in Dairy Cows Nguyen, Thanh Nha Hunter, Ian Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Bovine mastitis, lameness, and calving are three major problems in the dairy farming industry. They lead to economic losses and decreased animal welfare. With the industrialization of dairy farms, these problems are magnified due to the lack of skilled labor. This work introduces a design for a wireless sensor network to automate the health monitoring of every cow on a farm. Through the constant monitoring of health statistics, we can make a prediction about the early onset of mastitis, lameness, and calving and therefore reducing the burdens on the farmers. The network architecture is designed to accommodate a large number of cows (1000s) and the size of dairy farms (area >1500000 m²) by combining a short-range and a long-range communication protocol (Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and LoRa). This work also explores the use of IMUs for lameness detection in walking gaits. Taking advantage of the holonomic constraints of animal limbs, Principal Component Analysis is able to compress the highly correlated data of locomotion into a smaller dimension in which abnormal gaits can be differentiated. S.M. 2022-08-29T16:14:09Z 2022-08-29T16:14:09Z 2022-05 2022-06-23T14:10:25.116Z Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/144823 In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted Copyright MIT http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/ application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Nguyen, Thanh Nha
Development of Wireless Sensor Network to Detect Lameness in Dairy Cows
title Development of Wireless Sensor Network to Detect Lameness in Dairy Cows
title_full Development of Wireless Sensor Network to Detect Lameness in Dairy Cows
title_fullStr Development of Wireless Sensor Network to Detect Lameness in Dairy Cows
title_full_unstemmed Development of Wireless Sensor Network to Detect Lameness in Dairy Cows
title_short Development of Wireless Sensor Network to Detect Lameness in Dairy Cows
title_sort development of wireless sensor network to detect lameness in dairy cows
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/144823
work_keys_str_mv AT nguyenthanhnha developmentofwirelesssensornetworktodetectlamenessindairycows