Wireless Sensor Node System to Monitor Pig Activities for Behavior Classification

Wireless sensor nodes (WSNs) are useful to monitor animals remotely and continuously. The proposed WSN aims to monitor pig activities, and it consists of a 3-axis accelerometer, a 3-axis gyroscope, and a microcontroller with embedded BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) radio. The WSN was designed and prototyped with a custom PCB and used to collect data from pigs in field for about 131 hours, and the collected data was processed to classify pig behaviors with machine learning models. The sampling rate of the sensors is 10 samples per second. The proposed WSN dissipates 6.29 mW, on average, and the peak power dissipation is 41.01 mW during transmission of the sensed data. The WSN is estimated to operate for about three weeks with a coin cell battery CR2477.