A Non-Invasive Millimetre-Wave Radar Sensor for Automated Behavioural Tracking in Precision Farming-Application to...

Area of Science:

• Applied ethology
• Animal behaviour science
• Precision agriculture technology

Background:

• Automated animal behaviour quantification is crucial for applied ethology and breeding programs.
• Current methods often rely on animal tags and high computational power, limiting scalability.
• Environmental sensitivities of existing systems restrict their use in real-world farming conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel automated tracking system for monitoring untagged animals.
• To demonstrate the system's robustness, precision, and low-resource requirements compared to existing technologies.
• To explore the potential of radar technology for large-scale behavioural phenotyping in precision farming.

Main Methods:

• Utilized millimetre-wave radars for real-time tracking of freely moving, untagged animals.
• Compared radar tracking performance against conventional video tracking in terms of processing power and environmental independence.
• Validated the system by monitoring the movements of 58 sheep in an indoor behavioural test.
• Adjusted radar operating frequency and power for tracking at larger spatial scales in field conditions.

Main Results:

• The radar system provided robust and high-precision tracking with low processing power requirements.
• Radar tracking demonstrated independence from light variations and a lower misdetection rate than video systems.
• New estimators derived from radar data improved behavioural phenotyping of sheep.
• Successful demonstration of field tracking at larger spatial scales.

Conclusions:

• Millimetre-wave radar tracking offers a promising, scalable solution for automated, high-throughput monitoring of untagged animals.
• The technology overcomes limitations of current methods, enabling wider application in precision farming and genetic selection.
• Radar-based behavioural phenotyping can significantly advance animal welfare and breeding efficiency.