ABSTRACT
The usage of internet has so much affected all fields of human endeavor. This has led to increased dependence on it, in such a way that even the things that are used in human day to day living are dependent on communication technology. Hence, heralding a new era of Internet of Things (IoT). This work dealt on the application of telecommunication network as a vital tool for the production and management of livestock. The work majored on the use of Internet of Things (IoT) for monitoring and controlling the development of livestock. To achieve this some of the objectives were, to find out the parameters that could be used to monitor livestock wellbeing online and in real-time and also to design a mathematical model that could be used to determine the weight/health status of a livestock from the characterized data. The research adopted a wireless sensor network based on ZigBee communication protocol with other sensing elements, (like RFID, accelerometer) in order to establish communication link between the livestock and the farmer. Some of the parameters used to estimate the state of well being of the livestock were the height and the size, which were used to compare the weight and the body mass of the livestock. The sensor nodes which were worn as collar by the livestock send signals through a base station about any deviation as it concerns the weight of the livestock. Hence alert in form of a short message signal (SMS) is sent to the farmer’s GSM phone, which prompts him for action. The result shows that livestock monitored using IoT performed better because they were well monitored and quickly responded compared to livestock’s monitored manually, because challenges were detected early enough and treated.
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 Plates xi
Abstract xii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem 3
1.3 Aim and Objectives of the Thesis 4
1.4 Scope of the Study 4
1.5 Significance of the Study 5
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Historical Background 6
2.2 A Review of Sensor Network 8
2.3 Parameters for Behavior and Health Monitoring 11
2.4 Monitoring systems using WSNs Technology 13
2.5 Different Sensing Elements Used for Monitoring 15
2.6 Communication Network Technologies 23
2.7 Monitoring of Cattle Behavioral Parameters Using Received
Signal Strength (RSS) 25
2.8 Monitoring and Classifying the Behavior of Cattle Using
Observer Kalman Filter Identification and Multiple-Model Adaptive Estimation 28
2.9 Monitoring Weight of Human Beings Using Height and
Waist Size Parameters 30
2.10 Monitoring and Classifying Cattle Behavior Using Radio
Frequency Identification 33
2.11 Other Devices Used For Monitoring Cattle Behavior 37
CHAPTER 3: MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY
3.1 Materials 42
3.2 Methodology 44
3.3 The Mathematical Model Formulation 45
3.3.1 Weight (W), pitch angle of the neck (Ao) and temperature (T) 46
3.3.2 General model parameter relationship 47
3.3.3 Analyzing the model to evaluate its equation constants 47
3.4 Research Instrument Used 48
3.5 Formation of Simulink Mathematical Model 53
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Results of Weight and Height 54
4.2 Results of Weight and Reach Size 56
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Conclusion 68
5.2 Recommendations 69
References 70
Appendices 76
LIST OF TABLES
4.1 Measured data of Weight (kg) and Height (m) 55
4.2 Measured Data of Weight (kg) and the Reach Size (m) 57
4.3 Measured readings of the parameters 59
4.4 Computation values of the figures 61
4.5 Computation of weights from the mathematical model equation from reach size and height 62
LIST OF FIGURES
2.1 Wireless Sensor Network Architecture 8
2.2 WSN Components and Deployment 14
3.1 Flow Chart of the Process Flow 50
3.2 Hardware Model for Simulation 52
3.3 Simulink Mathematical Model 53
4.1 Graph of Cattle’s Weight and Height 56
4.2 Graph of Cattle’s Weight and Reach Size 58
4.3 Graph of Cattle’s Reach Size against Height 60
4.4 Graph of Modeled Cattle’s Weight against Reach Size 63
4.5 Graph of Modeled Weight against Height 64
4.6 Graph of Measured Weight against Modeled Weight 65
4.7 Graph of Weight against Reach size 66
4.8 Graph of Cattle’s Height and Weight % Difference 67
LIST OF PLATES
2.1 Wireless nodes around the Neck of the Cow 27
3.1 Connectivity area 43
3.2 Cattle with sensing node on the collar 43
3.3 Designed visual basic model for proper tracking and monitoring the health status using Zig Bee sensor 49
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
A cattle farming in Nigeria is gradually taking the lead in the area of provision of meat food, employment opportunities, raw materials, transportation, manure, income etc. In doing this it requires much energy/man power, resources and technical know-how to monitor its production and management. These man power and/or technical know-how are required to constantly monitor any physiological changes of the cattle in terms of growth rate, body weight, movement, pitch angle of the neck and bone size etc, as well the climatic changes, in order to improve its yield and management.
Unfortunately, these were done manually, through regular observations and logical reasoning; farm owners guess the most probable occurrence and environmental conditions at a particular period. But at most times, results of this method were less than accurate, thereby imposed a great threat to cattle lives and its management (Bailey et al, 2001).
Secondly, the primitive way of cattle identification and isolation were not effective too. Tattoos and trademarks were used as identifications. These resulted to a very weak and inaccurate detection of anomalies of cattle, hence not wholly acceptable. Therefore, it is recommended that studying the behavior of cattle and physiological changes online and proper channel of reporting same are key to effective management and managing its environmental impact, (Nadimi, 2012).
The advancement of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) has brought great transformation to lives and its management techniques. It has a wide range of application fields which includes: tracking and monitoring, surveillance, building automation, military applications, health care, agriculture, and environment and so on. It consists of three subsystems, the sensor subsystem which senses the environment, the processing subsystem which performs local computations on the sensed data and communication subsystem which is responsible for message exchange with neighboring sensors.
With this WSN technology in place, sensing, monitoring, computation and communication become very ease and apt. It does this by evaluating the physiological parameters and the climatic changes online and in real time. Data that is received determine the behavioral parameters such as movement, heat stress, temperature, velocity, pitch angle of the neck, feeding, weight etc which is responsible for the well being and health status of the cattle (Oudshoorn et al, 2006).
This work is therefore designed in such a way that weights of different categories, (young, medium and adult) of cattle are determined using heights and reach sizes of individual cattle as shown in equation 3.15. Like all mammals, healthy growths in cattle are directly proportional to the reach size, height and its weight, (Ogwumu et al, 2015).
Therefore, the relationship and comparison between the weights (W), reach size (Rs), and height (H) of different categories were evaluated. This phenomenon when established was used to classify cattle health status into two classes (healthy and unhealthy).
The WSN that is used to establish communication protocol between the farm, the environment and the farm owner is the zigbee network (IEEE 802.15.4). Attached as a collar in the cattle neck, the sensor comprises of accelerometer, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and other sensing elements which measure the physiological parameters to determine any deviation in weight. The sensor nodes communicate with the base station (sinks) of any deviation in weight of the cattle and send a warning sms alert to the owner for prompt action. The prompt response of the farm owner makes it possible to monitor the activities of the cattle for an improved yield and proper management, thereby increasing profitability of the farmer.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The business of rearing livestock in Nigeria and its resultant challenges are increasing day by day. Due to insufficient manpower and resources, it becomes almost impossible for farm owners to effectively monitor and manage the production of livestock and its health status.
Secondly, there have been so many recorded deaths of cattle in Nigeria. This can be attributed to climatic and physiological changes like weight loss which results to stunted growth, weak movement, fluctuating pitch angle of the neck, feeding habit and so on. It will become more dangerous if they are not monitored and detected on time. In most cases it leads to illness and diseases which might result to death of cattle. These have not only increased cost of maintenance but also increased losses incurred by farm owners.
Lack of effective communication between the farmers and cattle is another challenge in the nomadic farming. One farmer rear tens of cattle. He is mostly unable to determine and isolate any cattle that is abnormal online thereby causing an influenza to other cattle.
Therefore, it becomes very important that fluctuations in physiological parameters like temperature, body weight, pulse rate, blood pressures, calving and heat period should be regularly checked in order to detect any anomaly online.
1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE THESIS
The aim of this research is to develop a Telecommunication Network as a tool for the measurement and increased production of Livestock. However, in order to achieve this aim, the following goals were set:
i. To determine the parameters which could be used to monitor cattle wellbeing online and in real-time
ii. To design a mathematical Simulink model used to determine the weight of cattle from the characterized data.
iii. Using MATLAB to develop a software model for proper tracking and monitoring of this parameter for an improved yield.
1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The scope of this study is restricted to simulation of the key parameters (height and reach size) in order to monitor the weight of cattle.
Using Zigbee sensor network that is worn on the neck of the cattle, an effective communication between the farmer and the cattle is established.
This weight is used to classify these cattle into two categories. It is either they are healthy or not healthy.
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The use of wireless sensor network, like zigbee sensor to monitor some parameters, processes the data received and communicate with the farm owners online has much significance. Some of them are:
i. It initiates an effective communication between the farmers and its cattle. This is achieved by monitoring for any changes physiological weight of the cattle and sending signal to the farmer owner through the sensor.
ii. It eliminates the challenges of man power, insufficient resources, waste of energy, and time that are involved in traditional farming.
iii. It eradicates the chances of loss that would have been incurred by farmers due to inability to detect diseases as a ‘result of weight loss on time.
iv. It enables the farmer to ascertain when the cattle is healthy or not healthy through the determined weight.
v. It increases the production yield and improves the management of cattle through an effective monitoring of the parameters.
Click “DOWNLOAD NOW” below to get the complete Projects
FOR QUICK HELP CHAT WITH US NOW!
+(234) 0814 780 1594
Login To Comment