Here we describe a wireless data measurement and transfer system that operates within a free stall barn. We report also the reliability of the system. This system was designed and built in Very Intelligent Cow Barn project in 2006-2007

Järvinen, M.

Korkalainen, M.

Känsälä, K.

Martiskainen, P.

Mononen, J.

Rehu, J.

Sutinen, V.

English

Organic Eprints

            NORDIC ISAE 2010  Proceedings of the 22nd Nordic Symposium of the International Society for Applied Ethology  20-22 January 2010 Siilinjärvi, Finland               SSES Finnish Society for  Applied Ethology          Organizing Committee  Leena Ahola (chair), Jaakko Mononen, Sari Hänninen Leena Tuomisto, Mikko Järvinen and Paula Martiskainen  Finnish Society for Applied Ethology  and  University of Eastern Finland                                Proceedings of the 22nd Nordic Symposium of the International Society  for Applied Ethology  Editor: Sari Hänninen Published by: Finnish Society for Applied Ethology Printed in: Kopijyvä, Kuopio, 2010 22nd Nordic Symposium of the International Society for Applied Ethology 20-22 January 2010, Siilinjärvi, Finland       16 An example of a method to wirelessly transfer measurement data from cows in a free stall barn  M. Järvinen1, V. Sutinen2, P. Martiskainen1, J. Rehu3, M. Korkalainen3, K. Känsälä3 ja J. Mononen1  1University of Eastern Finland, Department of Biosciences, P.O.Box 1627,  70211 Kuopio, Finland 2University of Oulu, Measurement and Sensor Lab, Teknologiapuisto 127,  87400 Kajaani, Finland 3VTT, P.O.Box 1100, 90571 Oulu, Finland  One of the basic ideas of precision livestock farming (PLF) is to gather information of e.g. animals' production, health, and welfare in order to more efficiently manage the production process. Information is gathered from multiple sources such as automated feeding stations, milking solutions and gates, activity monitors and various loggers related to animal welfare. Information may be gathered directly from the animals and/or indirectly from their environment. In many cases huge amount of information is being logged but can be put to use only after the animal comes within the range of a specific data reader or downloader. Here we describe a wireless data measurement and transfer system that operates within a free stall barn. We report also the reliability of the system. This system was designed and built in Very Intelligent Cow Barn project in 2006-2007.  The overall goal was to measure cows' position in the barn via GPS, 3-D acceleration and neck surface temperature. The measurement and data transfer system is composed of two major subsystems. The measurement subsystem included a low power microcontroller (ATmega1281, Atmel, San Jose, USA), a Fastrax  GPS module (ITrax 03-02, Fastrax Oy, Vantaa, Finland), accelerometer sensor (ADXL330, Analog Devices Inc., Massachusetts, USA), input for the temperature sensor and a radio (Nanopan 5361, Nanotron Technologies GmbH, Berlin, Germany). The measurement subsystem was placed inside a small watertight casing. The casing was attached to the neck part of the collar of 32 dairy cows.  The data transfer subsystem consisted of a System-on-Chip receiver (SoC) with a Nanonet radio, a PC for data storing, and eight pseudosatellites in a synchronised network mounted high on the walls of the barn. GPS position, 3-D acceleration values, cow surface temperature, and battery status was measured with a 10 Hz frequency and sent wirelessly once a second to SoC. The SoC packed the received data and sent it forward via Ethernet to be stored in the PC database.  A sample from 16 collars revealed that 91 % of all sent data was successfully stored to the PC database. This result is quite promising, considering that data cannot be received when cow is inside a milking robot or an automated feeder. The Nanonet wireless radio network can be used to send multiple measurements from multiple sources at a high rate with a relatively low cost.   

An example of a method to wirelessly transfer measurement data from cows in a free stall barn

An example of a method to wirelessly transfer measurement data from cows in a free stall barn

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