Development of a New Wearable 3D Sensor Node and Innovative Open Classification System for Dairy Cows’ Behavior

Abstract

Monitoring dairy cattle behavior can improve the detection of health and welfare issues for early interventions. Often commercial sensors do not provide researchers with sufficient raw and open data; therefore, the aim of this study was to develop an open and customizable system to classify cattle behaviors. A 3D accelerometer device and host-board (i.e., sensor node) were embedded in a case and fixed on a dairy cow collar. It was developed to work in two modes: (1) acquisition mode, where a mobile application supported the raw data collection during observations; and (2) operating mode, where data was processed and sent to a gateway and on the cloud. Accelerations were sampled at 25 Hz and behaviors were classified in 10-min windows. Several algorithms were trained with the 108 h of behavioral data acquired from 32 cows on 3 farms, and after evaluating their computational/memory complexity and accuracy, the Decision Tree algorithm was selected. This model detected standing, lying, eating, and ruminating with an average accuracy of 85.12%. The open nature of this system enables for the addition of other functions (e.g., real-time localization of cows) and the integration with other information sources, e.g., microenvironment and air quality sensors, thereby enhancing data processing potential.