Livestock tracking and health analysis independent from GPS availability.
GPS-based localisation systems are in widespread use nowadays. Up until recently, however, these systems have only functioned reliably outdoors. Here, the attainable accuracy of positioning is within a few metres. When used indoors, the precision of the systems falls considerably, with additional positioning data from WLAN or GSM base stations generally being required.
It is in this field precisely that the work of the Linz Center of Mechatronics GmbH (LCM) has made great advances. Thanks to the combination of a wide range of different technologies – sound-based systems (audible sound / ultrasound) with radio-based systems of different bandwidths as well as GPS – LCM can now offer tailored indoor localisation systems.
For example, its work allowed a system for positioning and tracking farm animals indoors to be developed for the agricultural sector. The radio-based low-cost hardware enables animals to be permanently located with a precision of approx. 1 m, thereby allowing their movement patterns to be recorded. All the receiver electronics are integrated into the earmarks of the animals, while additional sensors provide data on the animal such as body temperature. This allows the behaviour and health of the animals to be deduced.
Crucial for a cost-effective and maintenance-free operation of the indoor localisation system is, for example, that the service life of the earmark (battery, robustness) corresponds with that of the animal. For commercial GPS-based systems, this is not possible. Only the intelligent combination of different technologies enables these customer requirements to be fulfilled.
Please contact us for further information! We shall be happy to provide detailed information about the options offered by Indoor-Tracking-Systems.
Linz Center of Mechatronics GmbH | Science Park | Altenberger Straße 69 | 4040 Linz | Austria | T +43 732 2468-6002 | F +43 732 2468-6005 | office@lcm.at | www.lcm.at
