Real-Time Extensive Livestock Monitoring Using Lpwan Smart Wearable And Infrastructure

Featured ApplicationThe wearable and infrastructure presented in this work has proven to be a valuable and flexible tool for real-time extensive livestock tracking and monitoring with regulatory compliance. Main features are online and offline monitoring and data logging; adaptative dual radio (FSK and LoRaWAN) for best energy/bandwidth/range balance; adaptative movement data streaming modes with vector quantization compression method; and years of battery life.Extensive unsupervised livestock farming is a habitual technique in many places around the globe. Animal release can be done for months, in large areas and with different species packing and behaving very differently. Nevertheless, the farmer's needs are similar: where livestock is (and where has been) and how healthy they are. The geographical areas involved usually have difficult access with harsh orography and lack of communications infrastructure. This paper presents the design of a solution for extensive livestock monitoring in these areas. Our proposal is based in a wearable equipped with inertial sensors, global positioning system and wireless communications; and a Low-Power Wide Area Network infrastructure that can run with and without internet connection. Using adaptive analysis and data compression, we provide real-time monitoring and logging of cattle's position and activities. Hardware and firmware design achieve very low energy consumption allowing months of battery life. We have thoroughly tested the devices in different laboratory setups and evaluated the system performance in real scenarios in the mountains and in the forest.