Monitoring Welfare of Individual Broiler Chickens Using Ultra-Wideband and Inertial Measurement Unit Wearables

Area of Science:

• Animal Science
• Agricultural Technology
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Animal welfare monitoring is crucial for ethical reasons and productivity.
• Wearable sensors offer an alternative to video monitoring for tracking individual animal behavior.
• Broiler farming presents unique challenges for wearable technology due to flock size, rapid growth, and device weight constraints.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate wearable sensor systems for monitoring broiler chicken welfare and activity.
• To compare different attachment methods for wearable devices on broiler chickens.
• To establish technical requirements and identify challenges for large-scale broiler monitoring.

Main Methods:

• Pilot study involving broiler chickens fitted with Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and Ultra-Wideband (UWB) sensors.
• Comparison of wearable attachment methods based on retention time and impact on chicken welfare.
• Analysis of IMU and UWB data for activity level detection, positioning, and movement patterns.

Main Results:

• IMU data effectively detects activity level differences between individual animals and environmental conditions.
• UWB technology enables simultaneous monitoring of up to 200 animals with sub-20 cm accuracy, though accuracy varies with installation.
• Suture attachment provided the longest mean device retention (19.5 days) compared to other methods.

Conclusions:

• Wearable IMU and UWB sensors show promise for monitoring broiler welfare and activity.
• Suture attachment is recommended for longer-term monitoring of broiler chickens.
• Further research is needed to address challenges in noise estimation, sensor synergy, and border accuracy for large-scale implementation.