Patent Application
20230086838
Fences have long been used as a means of containment for groups of animals. Various types of fences are well known in the art, including traditional fences, electric fences, and underground electric fences. While these types of fences are able to successfully confine animals, these means of containment require significant manpower to assemble, move, and take down. Further, in the event that animals need to be moved to a new location, this must be done manually.
More recently, ear tags and collars have been used to monitor and confine animals to specific boundaries. These devices are often fitted with a means of providing stimuli (e.g., a shock, noise, or vibration) when an animal moves outside of the defined boundary. The intensity and location of the stimulus on the animal is important for preventing injury and directing the animal inside the boundary. Also, this confinement method requires the use of user-provided and emplaced stationary base stations for communication between the user device and the collars and/or ear tags, meaning a user likely will have to move the base stations if animals are to be moved to a new location. Further, each device communicates directly with the user device which may result in a large amount of network traffic as well as a short battery life for all of the devices.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and form a part of the Description of Embodiments, illustrate various embodiments of the subject matter and, together with the Description of Embodiments, serve to explain principles of the subject matter discussed below. Unless specifically noted, the drawings referred to in this Brief Description of Drawings should be understood as not being drawn to scale. Herein, like items are labeled with like item numbers, wherein:
Reference will now be made in detail to various embodiments of the subject matter, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. While various embodiments are discussed herein, it will be understood that they are not intended to limit to these embodiments. On the contrary, the presented embodiments are intended to be illustrative rather than limiting and thus to cover alternatives, modifications and equivalents, which may be included within the spirit and scope the various embodiments as defined by the appended claims. Furthermore, in this Description of Embodiments, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the present subject matter. However, embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well known methods, procedures, components, and circuits have not been described in detail as not to unnecessarily obscure aspects of the described embodiments.
Livestock animals are animals kept, bred, or raised for use (food, income, work) or pleasure, and typically refer to agricultural/farm animals such as cattle, horses, pigs, sheep, goats, and the like. Conventionally, livestock animals are kept confined to pastures or other locations through the use of physical fencing. Although much of the present disclosure is described in the context of the agricultural industries with reference to “livestock,” this is not to be regarded as a limitation of the present disclosure, unless noted otherwise herein. In this regard, it is contemplated herein that embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied to alternative and/or additional animal industries such as dog management and the like.
Conventional systems and methods for moving, tracking, and confining livestock require significant manpower. For example, conventional systems may require for fencing equipment to be installed on or under the ground, which can be time consuming and expensive. Further, current systems require that equipment used for confining (e.g., fences, base stations, and the like) be moved and reinstalled when the user wants to move a group of livestock. Additionally, conventional systems may require the use of a significant number of workers to monitor livestock such as, cattle to make sure they stay in the fencing, and to make sure the cattle are healthy, well-watered, and well-grazed. Taken together, these shortfalls result in significant time and cost when trying to dynamically manage, confine, track, and move livestock.
It is desirable to have devices for confinement that are mobile, able to communicate quickly, and able to provide effective stimuli; and such devices are provided in the system described herein. In order to use collars and/or ear tags as a means of confining and moving animals, a user should be able to define and change boundaries along with being able to train animals to stay within those boundaries; such capabilities are described as part of the system discussed herein. It is desirable to have a method of defining and changing boundaries that is flexible and able to account for fences, gates, land; and such capabilities are described as functions of the system discussed herein.
Embodiments described herein are directed to a system and methods for virtual livestock management to include moving, tracking, monitoring activities of, and virtually confining livestock. It is contemplated herein that the described system and methods may allow for the moving, tracking, monitoring activities of, and confining of livestock to be performed in a more efficient manner by: requiring less/no fencing equipment to be installed as compared to conventional methods/practices which may require substantial fencing; requiring less/no human oversight (in-person with the livestock) as compared to conventional methods which use fence and require a person to check in physically/visually on the livestock being managed; allowing livestock to be moved without needing to move fencing equipment as compared to conventional practices which utilize fencing; allowing livestock to be moved without needing to move user emplaced base stations/communication equipment as compared to conventional practices which movement of user emplaced base stations/communication equipment; and/or allowing livestock to be moved to a directed location without the physical presence of a human or herding dog to assist with the directed moving as compared to conventional practices which require human intervention for directed livestock movements.
Discussion begins with a description of notation and nomenclature. Discussion then shifts to description of a system and some techniques for management and virtual confinement of livestock. Primary and secondary collars for use on livestock animals are described along with various example hardware components and functions thereof. Various example methods are described for training animals to use the primary and secondary collars, for communicating information to and among primary and secondary collars, and for using the primary and secondary collars to move and/or confine livestock animals. Techniques for collecting data on livestock are described, techniques for culling a herd of livestock animals based on collected data are described, and techniques for humanely separating a livestock animal (along with a paired livestock animal or animals) are described. Finally, operation of the system, to include the primary and secondary collars is discussed in conjunction with description of an example method of virtual management of livestock.
Some portions of the detailed descriptions which follow are presented in terms of procedures, logic blocks, processes, modules and other symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a computer memory. These descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. In the present application, a procedure, logic block, process, module, or the like, is conceived to be one or more self-consistent procedures or instructions leading to a desired result. The procedures are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, although not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated in an electronic device/component.
It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussions, it is appreciated that throughout the description of embodiments, discussions utilizing terms such as “transmitting,” “receiving,” “providing,” “determining,” “classifying,” “classifying animal activity,” “packaging,” “determining,” “communicating,” “communicatively coupling,” “wirelessly coupling,” “wirelessly communicating,” “providing directional stimulation,” “stimulating,” “directionally stimulating,” “applying directional stimulation,” “receiving animal position data,” “packaging animal position data and animal activity data,” “recording geographic positions,” “collecting head and body positions,” and “collecting,” or the like, refer to the actions and processes of an electronic device or component such as (and not limited to): a processor, a controller, a memory, a sensor (e.g., a temperature sensor, a magnetometer, an accelerometer, a Global Navigation Satellite System receiver, an atmospheric pressure sensor, a heart rate sensor, etc.), a primary collar for a livestock animal, a secondary collar for a livestock animal, a computer, a server computer, or the like. The electronic device/component manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic and/or magnetic) quantities within the registers and/or memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within memories and/or registers or other such information storage, transmission, processing, and/or display components.
Embodiments described herein may be discussed in the general context of processor-executable instructions residing on some form of non-transitory processor-readable medium, such as program modules or logic, executed by one or more computers, processors, or other devices. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc., that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The functionality of the program modules may be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments.
In the figures, a single block may be described as performing a function or functions; however, in actual practice, the function or functions performed by that block may be performed in a single component or across multiple components, and/or may be performed using hardware, using software, or using a combination of hardware and software. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present disclosure. Also, the example electronic device(s) described herein may include components other than those shown, including well-known components.
The techniques described herein may be implemented in hardware, or a combination of hardware with firmware and/or software, unless specifically described as being implemented in a specific manner. Any features described as modules or components may also be implemented together in an integrated logic device or separately as discrete but interoperable logic devices. If implemented in software, the techniques may be realized at least in part by a non-transitory computer/processor-readable storage medium comprising computer/processor-readable instructions that, when executed, cause a processor and/or other components of a computer, computer system, or electronic device to perform one or more of the methods and/or actions of a method described herein. The non-transitory computer/processor-readable storage medium may form part of a computer program product, which may include packaging materials.
The non-transitory processor-readable storage medium (also referred to as a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium) may comprise random access memory (RAM) such as synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), read only memory (ROM), non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, other known storage media, and the like. The techniques additionally, or alternatively, may be realized at least in part by a processor-readable communication medium that carries or communicates code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed, read, and/or executed by a computer or other processor.
The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits and instructions described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be executed by one or more processors, such an in-device processor(s) or core(s) thereof, a remotely accessed processor, a digital signal processors (DSPs), general purpose microprocessors, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), application specific instruction set processors (ASIPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), microcontrollers, or other equivalent integrated or discrete logic circuitry. The term “processor,” as used herein may refer to any of the foregoing structures or any other structure suitable for implementation of the techniques described herein. In addition, in some aspects, the functionality described herein may be provided within dedicated software modules or hardware modules configured as described herein. Also, the techniques could be fully implemented in one or more circuits or logic elements. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with an ASIC or DSP, or any other such configuration or suitable combination of processors.
In embodiments, the system includes a primary collar 104, one or more secondary collars 102, a remote server 108 (which may be internet/cloud-based), and one or more user devices 110. One or more human users may use the device(s) 110 to input data and/or receiving information. Each secondary collar 102 is configured to be worn about the neck of and associated with a single livestock animal, of a plurality of livestock animals, which are designated as the secondary livestock animals 103. The primary collar 104 is configured to be worn about the neck of and associated with a livestock animal which is designated as the primary livestock animal 105. In some embodiments, the primary livestock animal 105 is picked randomly while in others the primary livestock animal 105 may be a leader/alpha-animal of a herd. The primary collar 104 may be communicatively coupled to one or more secondary collars 102 via an ad hoc wireless network/short-range wireless network and to a remote data gateway 106 (e.g., satellites 106B, Wi-Fi base stations (not depicted), cellular towers 106A, and the like). The remote data gateway 106 may be communicatively coupled to a remote server 108. For example, when a cellular tower 106A is use as the remote gateway, it may connect wirelessly or by landline/internet to remote server 108. In another example, when a low-earth orbiting satellite 106B (such as a Starlink satellite of the Starlink satellite internet constellation) is used as a gateway, the satellite/satellite system may employ a bent pipe to downlink the communications to the remote server 108 or to the internet and then to the remote server 108. The remote server 108 may be communicatively coupled to one or more user devices 110 (e.g., desktop computer 110A, smartphone 110B, tablet computer 110C, or the like), such as by the internet or an intranet. It is contemplated herein that the user devices 110 may be configured to include applications (e.g., “apps”) configured to allow a user 112 (e.g., farmhand, rancher, and the like) to view, adjust, or modify one or more characteristics of system 100. For example, in some embodiments, such an application may provide a satellite image of a parcel of land where livestock (103, 105) are to be managed and allow the user 112 to select points which will establish boundary data which, when the points are connected provide a virtual boundary 120 or geo-fence for containment of livestock (103, 105) that are being managed.
In
As mentioned previously, in various embodiments, the primary collar 104 may be communicatively coupled to one or more secondary collars 102 such as via an ad hoc wireless network and/or a short-range wireless network. The IEEE 802.15.4 specification provides one suitable example of an ad hoc/short-range personal area network which may be ad hoc. It should be appreciated that other suitable standards such as Bluetooth, Zigbee, and the like may be employed. The primary collar 104 may function as a local data gateway (e.g., a local but ambulatory/self-moving base station) by receiving animal location data and/or animal activity data from one or more secondary collars 102 (e.g., 102-1 . . . 102-N), packaging the received data, and sending the packaged data to a server 108 and/or a user device 119 via a remote wireless data gateway 106. The one or more secondary collars 102 may collect animal location information/data via an on-board Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver device and transmit the animal data to a primary collar 104. The one or more secondary collars 102 may collect and/or classify animal activity data via an on-board sensor(s) and transmit the animal activity data to a primary collar 104. A secondary collar 102 may package animal location data with its classified animal activity data for the secondary livestock animal 103 about whose neck the secondary collar is worn. That is, the packaged information would indicate an animal activity (e.g., drinking water, standing still, grazing, lying down, walking, eating minerals, and the like) of a secondary livestock animal 103 associated with a particular secondary collar 102 at an animal location of the secondary livestock animal 103. The primary collar 104 may similarly collect animal location data/information via an on-board GNSS receiver device and/or collect/classify animal activity based on information measured by one or more on-board sensors. The primary collar 104 may package animal location data with its classified animal activity data for the primary livestock animal 105 about whose neck the primary collar 104 is worn. That is, the packaged information would indicate an animal activity (e.g., drinking water, standing still, grazing, lying down, walking, eating minerals, and the like) of the primary livestock animal 105 associated with the primary collar 104 at an animal location of the primary livestock animal 105.
With reference to livestock 103/105 depicted in
In embodiments, the short-range wireless transceiver(s) may be configured to transmit animal location data and animal activity data to and receive boundary information from a primary collar 104, as illustrated in
Controller 410 may include one or more processors 411 and memory 412. In embodiments, the one or more processors 411 are configured to execute a set of program instructions stored in the memory 412, the set of program instructions configured to cause the one or more processors to carry out one or more steps of a method of the present disclosure.
Sensors 420 may include a GNSS receiver 421 for measuring one or more positions of a livestock animal over time as it ambulates/walks about, a magnetometer 422 for measuring heading/directional orientation, one or more accelerometers 423 for measuring velocity and acceleration along with head and body position and movement data, an atmospheric pressure sensor for measuring changes in elevation/altitude of the head and/or body of the livestock animal. In some embodiments, sensors 420 may also include a temperature sensor 425 for measuring one or more of ambient temperature and animal temperature and a heart rate sensor 426 for measuring the heart rate of an animal. In some embodiments accelerometer 423, alone or along with magnetometer 422 and atmospheric pressure sensor 424, may provide position change data in the absence of position change data from GNSS receiver 421 or in order to power down GNSS receiver 421 to conserve power. For example, one or some combination of these sensors may operate as an inertial navigation system to provide position data in the absence of GNSS position data.
Power control circuitry 430 may include a battery 431, a voltage booster 432, and optionally a renewable energy source 305 (such as solar cells) to recharge battery 431.
Stimulators 440 may include one or more (i.e., bi-lateral to a livestock animal) electrical stimulators 441 which are coupled with voltage booster 432 to provide a controlled electrical shock to the livestock animal; one or more (i.e., bi-lateral to a livestock animal) speakers/buzzers 442 to provide audio stimulation to the livestock animal; and/or one or more (i.e., bi-lateral to a livestock animal) vibration motors 443 to provide vibratory stimulation to the livestock animal. When included, bi-lateral stimulation components allow for applying directional stimulation (e.g., unilaterally to only the side of the livestock animal that is nearest a virtual boundary that is not to be crossed).
For example, voltage booster 432 may supply high voltage which is routed by electrical stimulator 441 to nodes and/or conductors embedded in the flexible straps (one or both) of a collar, to provide a shock to the livestock animal wearing the collar
In some embodiments, the secondary collar 102 may be configured to be put in an awake state or a sleep state depending on measurements taken by the on-board accelerometer 423. For example, if the accelerometer 423 reads an acceleration below a selected threshold (e.g., at or near zero), the secondary collar 102 may be put into a sleep state until the accelerometer 423 measures a value above the selected threshold, in which case the secondary collar would be switched into an awake state.
In some embodiments, data measured by one or more sensors may be used to classify the activity of the animal as one or more of: drinking water, standing still, grazing, lying down, walking, and eating minerals. For example, location data from GNSS receiver 421 may be used to determine when the animal has crossed a virtual boundary 130 associated with a water source 131 or crossed a virtual boundary 140 associated with a mineral source 141. In some embodiments, when in a boundary 130 associated with water 131, mouth movements detected by accelerometer 423 and/or head tilt detected by accelerometer 423 and/or atmospheric sensor 424 may be used in conjunction with the location data to classify the animal as “drinking water.” In some embodiments, when in a boundary 140 associated with minerals 141, mouth movements detected by accelerometer 423 and/or head tilt detected by accelerometer 423 and/or atmospheric sensor 424 may be used in conjunction with the location data to classify the animal as “eating minerals.” Similarly, in some embodiments, sensor data may be used to classify animal activity data as “standing still” (e.g., when no movement is detected by GNSS receiver 421 over a specified period of time and no decrease of altitude associated with lying down has been detected by atmospheric pressure sensor 424). In some embodiments, accelerometer data may be monitored to determine a change in acceleration which indicates that a livestock animal is standing up from a lying down position or lying down from a standing up position. In some embodiments, sensor data may be used to classify animal activity data as “grazing” (e.g., when head tilt/mouth movement is detected outside areas associated with water 131 or mineral 141). In some embodiments, sensor data may be used to classify animal activity data as “lying down” (e.g., when there is no walking movement detected by accelerometer 423, no movement detected by GNSS receiver 421, and a decrease in elevation associated with a change from standing to lying down is measured by atmospheric pressure sensor 424). In some embodiments, sensor data may be used to classify an animal activity as “walking” (e.g., when GNSS receiver 431 detects movement over a short period of time and/or accelerometer 423 detects shock/vibration associated with walking). The classified animal activity may be transmitted as “animal activity data” packaged with a GNSS location of the livestock animal where (and when) the classified animal activity took place.
In another embodiment, the functionality of the secondary collar 102 may alternatively be embodiment in the form of a livestock ear tag (not illustrated). The ear tag design 102 may comprise one or more batteries, one or more controllers, one or more solar panels, one or more audio stimulation components (e.g., a speaker, buzzer, and the like), one or more vibration stimulation components (e.g., a vibration motor), one or more electrical stimulation components, one or more short-range transceivers, one or more GNSS units, one or more magnetometers, one or more accelerometers, one or more heart rate monitors, one or more temperature sensors, one or more voltage booster circuits, and/or one or more power management circuitries.
In embodiments, the one or more long-range transceivers may be configured to transmit and receive packaged animal data (location data and activity data for one or several secondary livestock animals 103 and the primary livestock animal 105)) to a remote wireless gateway 106 and to receive boundary data and other information and instructions transmitted through remote wireless gateway 106 data gateway, as are illustrated in
In embodiments, the short-range transceivers(s) 450 may be configured to transmit boundary data to one or more secondary collars 102 and receive animal location data and/or animal activity data from one or more secondary collars 102, as illustrated in
In some embodiments, the primary collar 104 may be configured to be put in an awake state or a sleep state depending on measurements taken by the on-board accelerometer 423. For example, if the accelerometer 423 reads an acceleration below a selected threshold (e.g., at or near zero), the primary collar 104 may be put into a sleep state until the accelerometer 423 measures a value above the selected threshold, in which case the primary collar 104 would be switched into an awake state.
Procedures of the methods illustrated by flow diagram 700 of
A user selects a confinement region for livestock animals via an application on user device 110, and the application generates boundary data in the form of geographic coordinates which are communicated to primary collar 104.
At 701, boundary information is received at primary collar 104. In embodiments, the boundary information is comprised of geographic coordinates sent from a user device 110. For example, as illustrated in
At 702, boundary information is transmitted to one or more secondary collars 102. In embodiments, the boundary information is comprised of geographic coordinates. For example, a primary collar 104 may transmit boundary information in the form of geographic coordinates to one or more secondary collars 102 via a short-range wireless transceiver 450.
At 703, the primary collar 104 may begin tracking the location of the primary livestock animal 105 wearing the collar 104. In embodiments, the GNSS receiver 421 on the primary collar 104 may collect measurements regarding the location of the animal wearing the collar. It is noted herein that the primary collar 104 may begin tracking temperature, heart rate, acceleration, and elevation change, heading change, and the like during at this time or later.
At 704, the primary collar 104 may enter training mode. In embodiments, training mode may be used to indicate whether an animal wearing the primary collar 104 is receptive to stimulus provided to keep said animal within a defined boundary. This training may occur in the presence of a user 112, who may be able to verify that an animal passes the training. The training may be automatically monitored such as by applying a stimulation and monitoring the animal's reaction, if any, to the stimulation. If reactions are within a prespecified range an animal is deemed to have passed initial training. As part of initial training, an animal may be introduced to and trained on directional stimulation to see if the animal is responsive to directional stimulation. If initial training is passed at 705, virtual fence confinement begins at 709. If not passed, a secondary training mode 706 may be entered. In the secondary training mode, the initial training may be repeated and/or the level of stimulation may be increased to see if desired reactions can be induced from the stimulation. If the animal fails at 707, an error message for failure to train is generated at 708 and sent back to a user device 110 and the animal and the primary collar 104 are taken out of training mode. If the secondary training is passed, then virtual fence confinement begins at 709.
At 709, in some embodiments, virtual fence confinement may comprise using stimulus devices on the collar 104 to confine the animal 105 wearing the collar to a defined boundary, such as virtual boundary 120A.
In a step 710, the location information and velocity of the animal wearing the collar may be checked by the primary collar. In embodiments, the location information may be compared to a three-level boundary system. It is noted herein that an example of the multi-level boundary system (with three boundary levels/layers) is illustrated in
At 711, when inside the first boundary level 120C, the stimulus components on the collar remain inactive and the animal is left alone and not stimulated at 712. At 711, when outside the first boundary level 120C but inside the second boundary level 120B, the audio stimulus components may be activated at 714, and a comparison made between the location information and the second boundary level 120B. At 713, if outside of the second boundary level 120B but inside the third boundary level 120A, audio and vibration stimulus components may be activated at 716 and a comparison made between the location information and the third boundary level 120A. If outside the third boundary level at 715, the prior stimulus components may remain activated, and the boundary may be expanded to encompass the animal and/or shock stimulation may be added at 717. In some embodiments if the animal remains outside of the third boundary level 120 after a predetermined time of stimulus application at 717, an alert may be sent to a user 112 (e.g., to the user's device 110) and the stimulation components on the collar 104 turned off.
In a similar fashion, a multi-level virtual boundary (e.g., 150A, 150B, and 150C) may be employed to keep an animal from entering an area with an obstacle or a hazard.
A user selects a confinement region for livestock animals via an application on user device 110, and the application generates boundary data in the form of geographic coordinates which are communicated to primary collar 104. The boundary information is received at primary collar 104. In embodiments, the boundary information is comprised of geographic coordinates sent from a user device 110. For example, as illustrated in
At 802, boundary information is received at a secondary collar 102 after being transmitted from a primary collar 104. In embodiments, the boundary information is comprised of geographic coordinates. For example, a primary collar 104 may transmit boundary information in the form of geographic coordinates to one or more secondary collars 102 via a short-range wireless transceiver 450. The secondary collar(s) 102 interpret(s) the boundary information as a virtual boundary, such as virtual boundary 120A of
At 803, the secondary collar 102 may begin tracking the location of the secondary livestock animal 103 wearing the collar 102. In embodiments, the GNSS receiver 421 on the secondary collar 102 may collect measurements regarding the location of the animal wearing the collar. It is noted herein that the secondary collar 102 may begin tracking temperature, heart rate, acceleration, and elevation change, heading change, and the like during at this time or later.
At 804, the secondary collar 102 may enter training mode. In embodiments, training mode may be used to indicate whether an animal wearing the secondary collar 102 is receptive to stimulus provided to keep said animal within a defined boundary. collar 104 is receptive to stimulus provided to keep said animal within a defined boundary. This training may occur in the presence of a user 112, who may be able to verify that an animal passes the training. The training may be automatically monitored such as by applying a stimulation and monitoring the animal's reaction, if any, to the stimulation. If reactions are within a prespecified range an animal is deemed to have passed initial training. As part of initial training, an animal may be introduced to and trained on directional stimulation to see if the animal is responsive to directional stimulation. If initial training is passed at 805, virtual fence confinement begins at 809. If not passed, a secondary training mode 806 may be entered. In the secondary training mode, the initial training may be repeated and/or the level of stimulation may be increased to see if desired reactions can be induced from the stimulation. If the animal fails at 807, an error message for failure to train is generated at 808 and sent back to a user device 110 and the animal and the secondary collar 102 are taken out of training mode. If the secondary training is passed, then virtual fence confinement begins at 809.
At 809, in some embodiments, virtual fence confinement may comprise using stimulus devices on the collar 102 to confine the animal 103 wearing the collar to a defined boundary, such as virtual boundary 120A.
In a step 810, the location information and velocity of the animal wearing the collar may be checked by the secondary collar 102. In embodiments, the location information may be compared to a three-level boundary system. It is noted herein that an example of the multi-level boundary system (with three boundary levels) is illustrated in
At 811, when inside the first boundary level 120C, the stimulus components on the collar remain inactive and the animal is left alone and not stimulated at 812. At 811, when outside the first boundary level 120C but inside the second boundary level 120B, the audio stimulus components may be activated at 814, and a comparison made between the location information and the second boundary level 120B. At 813, if outside of the second boundary level 120B but inside the third boundary level 120A, audio and vibration stimulus components may be activated at 816 and a comparison made between the location information and the third boundary level 120A. If outside the third boundary level at 815, the prior stimulus components may remain activated, and the boundary may be expanded to encompass the animal and/or shock stimulation may be added at 817. In some embodiments if the animal remains outside of the third boundary level 120 after a predetermined time of stimulus application at 817, an alert may be sent to a user 112 (e.g., to the user's device 110) and the stimulation components on the collar 102 turned off.
In a similar fashion, a multi-level virtual boundary (e.g., 150A, 150B, and 150C) may be employed to keep an animal from entering an area with an obstacle or a hazard.
At 901, data transfer between a remote wireless gateway 106 and a primary collar 104 is completed and the primary collar 104 begins collecting new data to send to server 108 and/or user device 110 and begins sending received boundary data out to secondary collars 102.
At 902, primary collar 104 pings via its short-range wireless transceiver 450 for nearby secondary collars 102. In embodiments, as illustrated in
At 904, if no secondary collars respond to the pings at 901, the primary collar 104 again pings for nearby secondary collars 102. If no secondary collars are located after the second pinging (or after a predetermined other number of pinging attempts or amount of time), the primary collar 104 may send an alert at 905 to a user 112 via the user's device 110.
At 903, if one or more secondary collars 102 are located via the pinging, the method proceeds to 906. At 906, the primary collar 104 connects to one or more secondary collars 102 that were located via the pinging and the secondary collars 102 send their animal location data and/or their animal activity data (which may be packaged together for an animal/collar) to the primary collar 104. In embodiments, as illustrated in
At 907 if not all secondary collars 102 have responded, the primary collar 104 may ping secondary collars 102 at 909 that did not send animal location data and/or animal activity data at 906. In embodiments, if the primary collar 104 still does not receive animal location data and/or animal activity data from secondary collars 102 that have been pinged, the primary collar 104 may send an alert at 910 to a user 112 (via the user's device 110). At 911 any unconnected secondary collars 102 may store their animal location data and/or animal activity data on board in memory (e.g., memory 412) until the primary collar 104 is able to ping said secondary collars 102 again or until said secondary collars 102 are able to make a mesh network connection through other secondary collars 102 back to primary collar 104 and transfer their stored data.
At 908, primary collar 104 packs the received animal location data and/or animal activity data and sends the data to a user's device 110 via remote wireless gateway 106. In embodiments, as illustrated in
In a step 1001, a user 112 inputs new boundary information through a user device 110 to establish a new virtual boundary similar to virtual boundary 120A of
At 1002, the user device 110 (e.g., the application running thereon) prompts the user 112 to input the location of any gates within the boundary set by the geographic coordinates. At 1003 the user inputs coordinates/location information for any gates into the application running on device 110. If there are no gates or after gate information is entered, the method proceeds to 1004.
At 1004, the user device 110 (e.g., the application running thereon) prompts the user 112 to input the location of hazards/obstacles within the boundary set by the geographic coordinates. The user 112 may similarly be prompted for the location of other sites, such as a watering location or a mineral block location. If there is any information to enter, the method proceeds to 1005 and the user 112 enters the information via device 110. If there is no information about obstacles/hazards or other sites to enter, or after the information has been entered, the method moves on to 1006.
At 1006 a cloud-based portion (e.g., at server 108) of the application running on device 110 calculates a path for the livestock (alternatively a user 112 may designate a path via a device 110). The path may be a moving bounded area (e.g., a slowly moving virtual fence) that nudges the livestock animals via stimulation along the computer calculated path from their current location to new location within the boundary specified by the provided geographic coordinates. In various embodiments, the remote server 108 may consider the location of obstacles/hazards and gates to calculate a path for moving the group of livestock animals. In this manner, the path skirts the obstacles/hazards and goes through a gate that is between the current destination and the desired destination associated with the new boundary coordinates.
At 1007, the boundary information inputted on the user device is transmitted to a primary collar along with the path information generated by the server computer 108. In embodiments, as illustrated in
At 1008, the primary collar 104 sends the boundary information and the calculated path information to one or more secondary collars 102 via the short-range wireless transceivers 450 of the collars (102, 104). Secondary collars 102 (e.g., secondary collar 102-2 of
At 1009, the primary collar 104 and secondary collars 102 will begin moving the animals wearing the collars, with a moving virtual bounded area (e.g., a moving virtually fenced region or succession of such regions) that follows the path, at a rate defined by the user 112 or at a predetermined rate. Livestock animals are stimulated to remain within the moving virtual bounded area.
At 1010, in various embodiments, the collars (102, 104) will begin by erasing old boundary information from the memory and confining animals to the new boundary when the animals have arrived via the path within a region bounded by the new boundary information.
At 1101, location and velocity of a primary livestock animal 105 wearing a primary collar 104 are checked.
At 1102 it is determined that the livestock animal 105 is outside of a virtual boundary 120 (120A, 120B, 120C). At 1103 it is determined which virtual boundary of the multi-level boundaries (120A, 120B, 120C) the livestock animal 105 is outside.
At 1104 it is determined if the animal 105 is outside of a first boundary 120C, and if so the animal 105 is provided with audio stimulation at 1105 (which may be directionally applied) to nudge the animal back within the boundary 120C.
At 1106 it is determined if the animal 105 is outside of a second boundary 120B, and if so the animal 105 is provided with audio stimulation and vibratory stimulation at 1107 (which may be directionally applied) to nudge the animal back within the boundary 120B.
At 1108 it is determined if the animal 105 is outside of a third boundary 120A, and if so two actions take place: a) at 1109, the boundary 120A is expanded to encompass the animal 105 within it and the GNSS receiver's sampling rate in the collar 104 is increased to better track the animal 105; and b) at 1110, the animal 105 is provided with audio stimulation and electrical stimulation/shock stimulation (which may be directionally applied) to nudge the animal back within the previous boundary 120A or within boundary 120B or 120C.
At 1111, the method again checks the location and velocity of the animal 105.
At 1112, it is determined if the animal 105 is still outside of a boundary that it was previously outside.
At 1113, if no longer outside of the boundary, then the nudging via stimulation was successful and the stimulation is turned off and a stimulation counter is reset, the boundary is reset if it was moved to accommodate the animal 105, and the GNSS sampling rate is reset to a lower rate than when the animal 105 was noted to be outside of a virtual boundary.
At 1114 it is determined if the animal 105 is still outside of a first boundary 120C, and if so the animal 105 is provided with second audio stimulation at 1115 (which may be directionally applied) to nudge the animal back within the boundary 120C.
At 1116 it is determined if the animal 105 is still outside of a second boundary 120B, and if so the animal 105 is provided with second audio stimulation and a second vibratory stimulation at 1117 (which may be directionally applied) to nudge the animal back within the boundary 120B.
At 1118 it is determined if the animal 105 is still outside of a third boundary 120A, and if so the animal 105 is provided with a second audio stimulation and a second electrical stimulation/shock stimulation at 1119 (which may be directionally applied) to nudge the animal back within the boundary 120A. The second audio stimulation and second electrical stimulation may be the same as the first of each or varied, such as by being more intense (e.g., louder or of greater voltage) or longer.
At 1120, coordinates and velocity of animal 105 are checked again and it is determined at 1121 if the animal 105 is still outside of a boundary that it was previously outside (or if it is headed back within or headed farther away). If no longer outside of the boundary, then the nudging via stimulation was successful and the stimulation is turned off and a stimulation counter is reset, the boundary is reset if it was moved to accommodate the animal 105, and the GNSS sampling rate is reset to a lower rate than when the animal 105 was noted to be outside of a virtual boundary.
At 1122, if the animal 105 is still outside of a boundary that it was previously outside, stimulation is turned off and an alert is sent to the device 110 of user 112.
With reference to
At 1220, in various embodiments, the primary collar 104 receives the virtual boundary data associated with virtual boundary 120A from the server computer 108 via a remote wireless gateway 106, wherein the primary collar 104 is worn about a neck of and associated with a primary livestock animal 105.
At 1230 the virtual boundary data associated with virtual boundary 120A is transmitted from the primary collar 104 to a plurality of secondary collars 102 via an ad hoc wireless mesh network. Each of the secondary collars (e.g., 102-1) of the plurality of secondary collars 102 is worn about the neck of and associated with an individual secondary livestock animal (e.g., 103-1) of the plurality of secondary livestock animals 103.
At 1240, the primary collar 104 provides directional stimulation to the primary livestock animal 105 to encourage the primary livestock animal 105 to refrain from crossing the virtual boundary 120A set by the virtual boundary data or to move back within the virtual boundary 120A if it has moved outside of the virtual boundary. In some embodiments when a multi-level incremental boundary is used, a technique as described in
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In the same manner described in 1262 to 1266 a second secondary collar (e.g., secondary collar 102-2) may similarly collect and package animal position data and classified animal activity data and provide them via an ad hoc wireless mesh network/personal area network communication to secondary collar 102-1 which then forwards them to primary collar 104 to be sent to server computer 108.
With continued reference to
In some embodiments, a single livestock animal may be selectively culled from a plurality of livestock animals based on predetermined rules or user input received via device 110. In such embodiments, to improve the behavior of the culled animal, system 100 may automatically select a second livestock animal (or in some embodiments multiple additional livestock animals, but less than entire herd) to pair with the culled animal to provide companionship and prevent separation anxiety. For example, with reference to
In some embodiments, where selective breeding is performed, metrics on animal activity are maintained by server 108 based on reported animal activity for animals 103, 105. One or more reports may be sent from server computer 108 to a device 110 of a user 112, where the reports rank livestock animals based on animal activity. For example, animals may be ranked: from most to least walking; from most to least lying down; from most to least foraging, from most to least standing still, and from most to least drinking of water; from most to least consumption of mineral. Automated or user specified rules may be applied based on the animal activity ranking to select animals to maintain in a breeding herd and animals to remove from a breeding herd.
In some situations, animals may be required to receive supplement injections if they do not consume enough minerals in their diet. Conventionally, if a mineral deficiency is discovered in a herd, all animals in the herd receive an injection even if all do not need the supplementation provide by the injection. In some embodiments, server computer 108 may generate a report ranking managed livestock animals according to their amount of detected mineral consumption. An automated or user specified criteria may be applied to the ranking to determine which livestock animals do not need supplement injection because of adequate mineral consumption. Animals which do need the injection may be culled and moved to a region where a veterinarian or worker will arrive to provide the required injection. Similarly, a list of animals needing veterinary/medical treatment may be provided via user input to a device 110 and those animals may automatically be culled and sent down a virtual path to a specified virtual holding area.
The examples set forth herein were presented in order to best explain, to describe particular applications, and to thereby enable those skilled in the art to make and use embodiments of the described examples. However, those skilled in the art will recognize that the foregoing description and examples have been presented for the purposes of illustration and example only. The description as set forth is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.
Reference throughout this document to “one embodiment,” “certain embodiments,” “an embodiment,” “various embodiments,” “some embodiments,” or similar term means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. Thus, the appearances of such phrases in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics of any embodiment may be combined in any suitable manner with one or more other features, structures, or characteristics of one or more other embodiments without limitation.
This application claims priority to and benefit of co-pending U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/245,558 filed on Sep. 17, 2021 entitled “Corral Tech” by Jack Keating., having Attorney Docket No. “CORRAL P1000PR”, and assigned to the assignee of the present application, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63245558 | Sep 2021 | US |
