Horse Gait Identification Using Distributed Acoustic Sensing

In this paper field measurements are carried out using a distributed acoustic sensing system (DAS) for the identification of horse gait. The DAS system has a spatial resolution of 1 m, frequency range of 1-5 kHz and the fiber length is of about 70 m. The optical fiber cable lays down into trench of 15 cm of depth. Several measurements are also carried out in order to fully understand the measuring capacity of the system, including a 2 kg calibrated impact hammer and a small controlled blast of 12.6 Pa of air pressure. Results demonstrate the capacity to measure soil mechanical waves speed of 171 m/s for the impact hammer tests and sound speeds in air of about 366 m/s for the controlled blast tests. The experiments involving horses allowed the identification of three distinct horse gait patterns: step, trot and gallop, as well the horse speed in each gait with SNR about 30 dB.