Cattle Observer - Development of an animal monitoring system for dairy cows

19.Dec.2024   Reseach News

The aim of the project was to develop a system (hardware, software, communication interfaces and antennas) for animal monitoring on dairy cows.

For the Center for Microtechnologies, the main focus was on system integration and packaging and thus on the encapsulation or housing of the electronics and the implementation of the antenna directly into the housing using 3D-capable additive manufacturing processes.

During the project period, an electronic system (hardware, software, radio interfaces and antennas) for animal monitoring was developed and successfully tested on dairy cows in test farms. A two-stage hardware system was established in the project. In stage 1, no priority was given to energy management and hardware dimensions in order to provide a system for data mining on dairy cows in a timely manner and thus enable data analyses. In the second stage, the actual technical innovations of miniaturization and the functionalization of previously passive system components (housing, carrier plates) were implemented using 3D-capable additive processes by the Center for Microtechnologies at Chemnitz University of Technology and UPB. In cooperation, functional demonstrators could be tested on dairy cows on farms, thus providing data for further evaluation and establishment of the evaluation algorithms and models at the partner Cecon.

By using new 3D-compliant deposition technologies, developing an adapted housing and miniaturizing the circuit boards, the weight of the hardware in the second stage was reduced from 180g to 47g. The dimensions of the final electronic system are 70mm x 50mm x 20mm compared to the original 93mm x 54mm x 45mm dimensions of the stage 1 hardware.