ABSTRACT
As the nation is emphasizing on the development of the economy with agriculture as an attendant alternative to the existing oil driven economy, it has become imperative to mechanize agriculture. This work is centered on livestock. Research has shown that livestock in the farm are mostly affected by diseases and that the proximity between animals and humans has made the latter more vulnerable to infectious diseases of animals. These various diseases are so tormenting that they kill livestock quickly and in large number, thereby increasing the cost of livestock farming. Even with the proliferation of modern sensing devices, design concepts and scientific propositions that are in abundance. However, building a functional as well as cost effective miniature device that is capable of remotely detecting cattle’s health status and location in real-time has been quite challenging. In view of this, this work proposes an Internet of Things cum Near Field Communication (NFC) system for monitoring and tracking the health status as well as the location of any cattle by using sensors, and Global Positioning System (GPS) module respectively. The system implementation was carried out using the software program to drive the hardware system. The design is an embedded application which forms unit integration with various sensors such as temperature sensor, pulse rate sensor, humidity sensor, and GPS location sensor interfaced to the NodeMCU microcontroller with embedded ESP8266 Wi-Fi chip. This Wi-Fi chip serves as an Internet of Things (IoT) gateway for sending data to a remote server. Farmers get cows’ health status report in real time either online or on their mobile phones in form of Short Messaging Service (SMS), so that an intelligent monitoring is achieved by just a click on the hyperlinked SMS to triangulate the position of cattle on the Google map. The test carried out on the system developed shows that the prototype is flexible, reliable and capable of monitoring cattle remotely. The system can also be deployed in a farm settlement with any kind of cattle production system in use because of its compact design, affordability, and complementary support for areas of poor network infrastructure. The system developed will improve modern ranching and which will help the national polity as the issue of Fulani herdsmen will be curbed.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page i
Declaration ii
Certification iii
Dedication iv
Acknowledgements v
Table of Contents vi
List of Tables ix
List of Figures x
List of Abbreviations xi
Abstract xiv
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of Study 1
1.2 Statement of Research Problem 4
1.3 Aim and Objectives of Study 5
1.4 Scope of Study 6
1.5 Research Justification 6
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Internet of Things (IoT) 8
2.1.1 Definition 8
2.1.2 Nomenclature for internet of things 10
2.2 Internet of things enabling technologies 10
2.2.1 Near field communication (NFC) 11
2.2.2 Operation and communication modes 12
2.2.3 Standards 14
2.2.4 Radio frequency identification (RFID) 16
2.2.5 Comparison of radio frequency identification with near field
communication 18
2.2.6 Bluetooth 19
2.2.7 ZigBee 21
2.3 Review of Related Works 22
2.4 Research Gap 29
CHAPTER 3: MATERIALS AND METHODS
3.1 Materials 32
3.1.1 Hardware development tools 32
3.1.2 Software development tools 47
3.2 Methods 48
3.3 System Description 50
3.3.1 Hardware description 51
3.3.2 Software description 52
3.3.3 System algorithm 53
3.3.4 System flowchart 53
3.4 Database Design 58
3.5 System Block Diagram 59
3.6 System Architecture 60
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 System Testing and Evaluation 62
4.1.1 System testing 62
4.1.2 Unit testing 62
4.1.3 Integration testing 62
4.1.4 Security and vulnerability testing 63
4.1.5 Compatibility testing 63
4.2 Test Result and Discussion 63
4.2.1 Web application 64
4.2.2 Google map 68
4.2.3 Short messaging service (SMS) 69
4.2.4 Hardware implementation result 70
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Conclusion 73
5.1.1 Contribution to Knowledge 74
5.2 Recommendations 74
References 75
LIST OF TABLES
2.1 Comparison of WPAN technologies 19
3.1 Technologies and NFC tag types 34
3.2 Switch (S1 and S2) Control 37
3.3 PN532 Pinout Configuration 38
3.4 Pulse Sensor Pinout Configuration 46
3.5 Database Schema for Administrator 58
3.6 Database Schema for Students Record 58
LIST OF FIGURES
2.1 Block diagram of cattle’s health and environment monitoring system 24
3.1 Typical snapshot of NFC tag in form of
cards and key fob 34
3.2 Typical reader/writer mode Operation 36
3.3 Typical
PN532
NFC Breakout board 37
3.4 Typical
NodeMCU Development Board 40
3.5 Typical Temperature and Humidity DHT11 Sensor 44
3.6 Typical Pulse Sensor (SEN-11574) 45
3.7 Typical
Neo-6M GPS module with a ceramic patch antenna 46
3.8 Circuit
Diagram of the Livestock Monitoring System 52
3.9 Algorithm for a remote
livestock monitoring system 53
3.10 Flowchart for the GPS coding 54
3.11 Flowchart for the NFC coding 55
3.12 Flowchart
for Pulsesensor coding 56
3.13 Flowchart
for Humidity and Temperature coding 57
3.14 System Block Diagram 59
3.15 System Architecture 61
4.1 System Login Page 65
4.2 System Home Page 66
4.3 Home Page showing cattle status 67
4.4 System Help Page 67
4.5 Screenshot of the location on website
through Google Map 68
4.6a View of the location 69
4.6b SMS with a Google map link 70
4.7 Packaged Hardware System in Unpowered
State 71
4.8 Packaged Hardware System (Powered On) 71
4.9 Serial Monitor Output 72
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
API Application
Programming Interface
ADC Analog-to-Digital
Conversion
AES Advance
Encryption Standard
BPM Beats
Per Minute
CORBA Common
Object Request Broker Architecture
CoAP Constrained
Application Protocol
DOM Document
Object Model
DES Data
Encryption Standard
EPC Electronic
Product Code
GPS Global
Positioning System
GPIO General-Purpose
Input/Output
HF High
Frequency
HTML Hypertext
Mark-up Language
IDE Integrated
Development Environments
IEEE Institute
of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IT Information
Technology
IP Internet
Protocol
IPV4 Internet
Protocol Version4
IPV6 Internet
Protocol Version6
IoT Internet
of Things
IC Integrated
Chip
ID Identity
I2C Inter-Integrated
Circuit
I2S Inter-Intergrated
Circuit Sound
ISO International
Organization for Standardization
IEC International
Electrotechnical Commission
IETF Internet Engineering Task Force
IR Infrared
JIS Japanese
Industrial Standard
JSON JavaScript
Object Notation
LDO Low-Dropout
regulator
LED Light
Emitting Diode
LoWPAN Low-Power
Wireless Personal Area Network
LF Low
Frequency
LCD Liquid Crystal
Display
MD2 Message-Digest
Algorithm
MVC Model
View Controller
NMEA National
Marine Electronics Association
NDEF NFC
Data Exchange Format
NFC Near
Field Communication
PIN Personal
Identification Number
PPHS Pervasive
and Personalized Healthcare System
PHP Hypertext
Pre-processor
PWM Pulse
Width Modulation
PPG Photophlethysmography
RSA Rivest
Shamir Adleman
RTC Real-Time
Clock
RISC Reduced
Instruction Set Computer
RTOS Real-Time
Operating System
RAM Random
Access Memory
RC Remote
Control
RFID Radio
Frequency Identification
RF Radio
Frequency
SIG Special
Interest Group
SMS Short
Messaging Service
SAFER+ Secure
and Fast Encryption Routine plus
SHA-1 Secure
Hash Algorithm 1
SOAP Simple
Object Access Protocol
SPI Serial Peripheral
Interface
SaaS Software-as-a-Service
SIM Subscriber
Identity Module
SD Secure
Digital
SoC System
on a Chip
SDIO Secure
Digital Input/output Interface
TCP Transmission
Control Protocol
TTL Transistor
Transistor Logic
UART Universal
Asynchronous Receiver and Transmitter
UID Unique
Identity
UUID User
Unique Identity
URL Uniform
Resource Locator
USB Universal
Serial Bus
UHF Ultra-High
Frequency
VCC Voltage
Common Collector
VIN Voltage
Input
WPAN Wireless
Personal Area Network
WSN Wireless
Sensor Network
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
There are no recent human activities, processes or
facets of life that preclude the use of technology as an asset to transform the
laborious and time-consuming task of mankind. Nowadays, modern farming is not unaffected by technology. Recent
innovations and researches have enabled man to get rid of the manual efforts
that he put into agriculture. Efforts are on top gear to find new ways of improving
agriculture to achieve the long-term development goal. Technology has made
numerous impacts in the agricultural sector as it is now possible inter alia to cultivate crops in a
desert, breed insect or disease-resistant crops, use an automated crop irrigation
system, implement precision agricultural tools, deploy a weather forecast
system, and develop powerful farm management software. This Information
Technology (IT) based agriculture has opened up opportunities, like any other
business, for farmers to not only manage farm operations, but to change the way
they manage crops and livestock to boost productivity and efficiency.
It is
against this backdrop of global challenge of food production that the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) made a prediction of a shoot in the population in the world
to 9 billion by 2050, and that 70 percent increase in food production would
have to emerge to counter this growth (FAO,2009). This translates that farmers
will have to increase food production, with less resources such as water and
land.
Consequently, modern and innovative
technologies are being considered in various agricultural sectors to meet the
goal. This stride needs to be accelerated by integrating Internet of Things (IoT)
while making the agriculture smart and simple in nature (Ray, 2017).
Little wonder, some of the notable entrepreneurs and industrialists
in the developed countries are now focused on bringing the latest computing
technologies-data analytics, cloud computing, mobile applications, radio
technologies- to farms. In United States for instance, start-ups like Granular offers analytics software to help farmers track costs,
production yields, and profits against established benchmarks. Cloud computing,
on the flipside, also offers customized Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions
to help farmers better manage their crops and their businesses.
Mobile applications offer farmers the opportunity of gathering,
and updating real-time data using their smartphones. Radio and wireless
technologies are no exceptional devices in the hands of farmers for tracking
and monitoring the location of farm animals, produce, and for detecting
counterfeit produce in the market (Pourghomi and Ghinea, 2012).
In spite of the proliferation of these emerging technologies
and their numerous benefits, farmers are yet to leverage on them. Hence, this work proposes an Internet of Things
(IoT) Based Livestock (particularly cattle) Farm Remote Monitoring System with the
use of the Near Field Communication (NFC) technology for Michael Okpara
University of Agriculture Umudike’s (MOUAU) farm settlement, as a test bed.
The Internet of Things (IoT) has been described by Keertana and
Vanathi (2017) as the
network of physical objects-devices, vehicles, buildings and other items
embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity-that
enables these objects to collect and exchange data. It also provides a remote
monitoring capability for objects across existing network infrastructure, thereby
enabling close interaction between the computer-based systems and the real
world.
The Near Field Communication (NFC), however,
refers to a subset of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), wireless communication technology
that operates at a frequency of 13.56 MHz, has a low
bandwidth and supports a threshold data transfer rate of 424 Kbit/s.
According to
Lopez-de-Ipinia
(2007), the Near Field Communication technology is
described as one of the enablers for ubiquitous computing that requires
bringing two NFC compatible devices close (about 10 centimeters)
together. In his work,
he referred to it as, “a combination of contactless identification and
interconnection technologies”. Thus, this technology makes it possible for
users to interact with any smart object (either an NFC tag, NFC reader, or
another NFC mobile) using their NFC enabled mobile phone.
The communication of near field devices is based on
inductive coupling between transmitting and receiving devices. The NFC
technology also allows people to integrate their daily-use credit cards, and
loyalty cards into their handsets. Thus,
the data or mobile services received by NFC mobile during communication with
other smart object or another NFC mobile in proximity can be used to access
other online applications or web pages. NFC technology simplifies transactions
and opens up innovation opportunities to mobile communications. Little wonder
they are often used for bus ticketing, mobile payment system, asset tracking,
access control, counterfeit detection and many more to mention but a few (Coskun
et
al., 2012).
Another attractive feature of NFC technology is the ease of
communication and the protection of personal property and/or information during
or after communication. The short distant-communication between NFC enabled
devices makes it difficult to usurp data or information. Other features such as
internet access capability, unique user identification, secured information
sharing capability, increasing computing power of mobile phones, convenience
and budget control are few of the numerous advantages NFC technology offers;
making it a choice for use in the implementation of this work.
1.2 STATEMENT
OF RESEARCH PROBLEM
Several
ingenious sensing devices and concepts have been demonstrated and proposed in
recent past years but very little have been done as regards building a cost
effective miniature device that is capable of detecting and transmitting
cattle’s physiological status as well as location data to the cloud for remote
monitoring in real time. It has also been observed that livestock in the farm
are mostly affected by diseases (Khushbu et
al., 2019).
Torments
from different killer diseases and high cost of breeding has created the need
for farmers to adapt to efficient and practical methods to improve productivity
and minimize cost. Moreover, in a livestock farm settlement with poor network
infrastructure, the absence of a novel technology like the Internet of things (IoT)
which in itself contains wireless communication technologies for connecting objects
to the internet leaves the accountability, profitability, productivity and
efficiency of the farm deficient.
It is worthy to
note that even in other existing work on IoT enabled remote livestock
monitoring system, a notification system in the form of Short Messaging Service
(SMS) containing longitude and latitude for cattle location is usually sent to farmers’
mobile phones to alert them of any emergency but unfortunately the SMS does not
include a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or hyperlink for livestock to be
instantly traced on the Google map. This additional feature is needed for this
extended and robust remote cattle monitoring system.
In view of
the above mentioned problems, this work seeks to address the challenges of
instant tracing of livestock on the Google map using the URL
1.3 AIM
AND OBJECTIVES OF STUDY
The aim of this
study is to design and implement an intelligent remote livestock monitoring
system applying Near Field Communication (NFC). The objectives of this research
include:
1.
To develop an algorithm that remotely
monitors livestock based on Near Field Communication
2.
To develop a code using C++ programming
language from the algorithm previously developed.
3.
To integrate the developed code into the
NodeMCU microcontroller development board
4.
To interface the NodeMCU with PN532 Near
Field Communication (NFC) reader and the Global Positioning System (GPS) using
Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) protocol.
5.
To set up a prototype as a proof of
concept
1.4 SCOPE OF STUDY
The scope of the
study covers the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) cum Near Field
Communication based livestock monitoring system in Michael Okpara University of
Agriculture Umudike’s farm settlement with emphasis on cattle’s health and
location tracking system. The system monitors both the cattle’s health
parameters such as body temperature, heartbeat, and their environmental
parameters such as temperature and humidity. It also tracks cattle’s current
location in a pasture, should they wander far away, using Global Positioning
System (GPS) device. The system is limited only to data collection through
sensors and storage of the data to a remote server; it does not compute or
analyse the data but provides a web application where farmers can remotely view
the collected data.
The system deploys
the use of a NodeMCU microcontroller with embedded ESP8266 Wi-Fi module and pin
headers which provides network connection and interface for various actuators
and sensors.
This work does not
include the use of cameras for monitoring cattle’s movement patterns in a
pasture as a way to better understand and/or predict cattle’s behaviour from
their movement analysis.
A Short Messaging Service (SMS) gateway is included in
the system to alert farm managers and cattle handlers of an impending danger or
abnormal changes in health of the cattle so as to expedite necessary actions.
1.5 RESEARCH JUSTIFICATION
This research addresses the challenges
faced by cattle herders particularly in Michael Okpara University of
Agriculture Umudike’s farm settlement and other rural farmers in the suburb of
south eastern part of Nigeria who are hitherto practising the traditional
methods of livestock farming in spite of the proliferation of modern computing
technologies. However, this research would change the narrative; it provides a
window of opportunity for exploring the advantages of intelligent remote
monitoring capabilities of Internet of Things cum Near Field Communication
(NFC) technology for cattle.
This research work bridges the gap between
cattle herders, owners, farm managers and the veterinary doctors that are
assigned to the cattle. It also finds relevance and superiority, over and among
the other existing wireless communication technologies applied in this
regard as an internet of things enabler, in the ease of use of
the novel technology, NFC, to livestock
farmers and for the secure transmission of data in a
network.
The application of the NFC technology for
livestock intelligent remote monitoring, therefore, justifies this work
irrespective of the cattle production system in use for any farm settlement.
Lastly, this work provides an automated record or
piece of information regarding each cow’s health status and location at anytime,
anywhere and any place. Thus, improving the level of cattle security and
reducing the severity of the disease infestation on cattle.
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