An integrated system for the acoustic monitoring of goat farms

Effective precision livestock farming requires the availability of reliable and up-to-date data characterizing the animals and environment of interest. This work presents the design, architecture, and implementation of a wireless acoustic sensor network for monitoring goat farms on a 24/7 basis. In addition, we define a hierarchical organization of the involved sound classes exhaustively covering every aspect of the encountered goat vocali-zations. Moreover, we developed an annotation tool tailored to the specifics of the problem at hand, i.e. a big, real-world data environment, able to meaningfully assist the annotation of goat vocalizations via a suitable sound classification module. On top of that, a mobile phone application was developed facilitating authorized users to remotely access information describing the situation on the farm site. Importantly, such a non-invasive moni-toring framework was installed in 4 different sites located in Northern Italy while taking into account their diverse characteristics.

Automated summary

This study presents the design and implementation of a wireless acoustic sensor network for continuous monitoring of goat farms. A hierarchical organization of involved sound classes is defined, covering all aspects of goat vocalizations. An annotation tool tailored to the real-world data environment is developed to assist in goat vocalization annotation. A mobile phone application is also developed for remote access to farm site information. The non-invasive monitoring framework is implemented in 4 different sites in Northern Italy, considering their diverse characteristics.