Design of a Drone-Assisted Wireless Sensor Network System for Feedlot Animal Health Monitoring

Abstract

Cattle health monitoring on the feedlot is a crucial but nontrivial task. Conventionally, the monitoring quality relies heavily on the obviousness of the observed traits and the time spent on observing each animal, which make the early detection of the illness hard to achieve. In this thesis, a wireless sensor network system is developed to monitor the animals’ feeding and drinking behaviors thereby increasing the probability of detecting the animals with early signs of illness. Deploying mechanism of the drone is also proposed to localize the animal that needs care. Finally, a scheduling algorithm is designed to support data transmissions in animal wireless body area networks. The significance of the research lies in the novelty and feasibility of using directional antenna, drone and wireless body area networks for feedlot animal health monitoring.