Connectivity challenges
The Animal Mounted Living Laboratory
- Develop animal mounted sensors that can be used to advance precision agriculture in sheep and pheasants by monitoring behaviour, movement and physiology, as well as environmental conditions.
- Develop an automated system, capable of working in areas non-conducive to current technologies, that would feedback information from the sensors.
- Use the system to study the behaviour and environmental impact of sheep and pheasants.
- Engage upland farmers, game practitioners, landowners, policy makers, NGOs and future funders on the potential application of automated systems to inform and support their practice.
- Support a range of scientific projects in the fields of agriculture, big data/GIS, automation, animal behaviour and environmental management.
Developing the Animal Mounted Living Laboratory
Combining sensors, thermography and environmental loggers to truth behavioural, physiological, movement and environmental data of animals in situ.
A non-invasive approach to animal monitoring
We will design and build a suite of configurable sensors that will be attached to animals using modified devices that are either already used in agricultural practice or have been used to inform prior research, such as collars, harnesses or backpacks.
Deploying the automated system
On a field on Dartmoor, we will deploy a LoRaWAN system to capture data from our animal-mounted sensors. We will develop algorithms that will allow us to triangulate data to inform on fine scale movement, behavioural, welfare and production in real time.
Carrying out research experiments
Using a controlled test environment we will determine whether the behaviours of sheep and pheasants are influenced by environmental factors. By manipulating these factors we can compare the efficiency of automated systems to traditional observation.