Embedded Systems for Small Ruminants Behavior Identification: Application to Pastoral Farms in Mountain and Mediterranean Areas

Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) has experienced a remarkable growth during the last years, thanks to the widespread deployment of embedded systems and wireless communication technologies. PLF systems, which are mainly oriented to intensive farming, must be adapted to correctly work in extensive farming scenarios. In this context, the monitoring of small ruminants in mountain and Mediterranean regions constitutes a challenge for the operation of embedded systems due to a specific set of constraints, like the high degree of mobility of the animals, the harsh outdoor conditions, the wireless data transmission difficulties, and the limited energy availability. Consequently, PLF solutions are either unavailable or unsuitable for this type of environments. Considering all these factors, this paper surveys several sensor technologies employed for the identification of sheep and goats' behavior, including wireless communication solutions and power saving strategies, with the aim of defining the global functionalities of a PLF tool, adapted to small ruminants, to help farmers' decision-making in pastoral farms. The main conclusions are that there are no relevant differences between the characteristics of the sensors employed to identify animals' behavior, and these characteristics are not chosen apparently in function of the behavior that must be identified or the type of animal.