Wired pigs: ad-hoc wireless sensor networks in studies of animal welfare

Abstract

The potential for the use of ad-hoc wireless sensor network technology in experimental investigations in animal welfare was explored in a study of the effect of the immediate environment on the body temperature of pigs. Sensors to simultaneously measure core and surface temperature were implanted in four pigs and monitored for a week using the open source application, TinyDB. Concurrently, a network of environmental sensors measuring predominantly temperature and humidity was placed around the pigs and this network was managed and monitored using a commercial package, Sensicast Developers Version (Sensicast DV). Approximately 100000 data points were gathered during the study. It was found to be significantly easier to develop, deploy and maintain the sensor network using Sensicast DV, and that there were significant problems when TinyDB was faced with large amounts of frequent sampling. However, TinyDB provided greater flexibility than Sensicast DV in its capacity to support more sensor platforms.