Use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and photogrammetric image analysis to quantify spatial proximity in beef cattle
| Autor: | John S. Church, David J. Hill, Justin Terrance Mufford, Nancy J. Flood |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
Control and Optimization Computer science 0402 animal and dairy science Aerospace Engineering 04 agricultural and veterinary sciences Beef cattle 040201 dairy & animal science 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Computer Science Applications Image (mathematics) Photogrammetry Control and Systems Engineering Remote sensing (archaeology) Automotive Engineering Metric (mathematics) Electrical and Electronic Engineering Remote sensing |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Unmanned Vehicle Systems. 7:194-206 |
| ISSN: | 2291-3467 |
| DOI: | 10.1139/juvs-2018-0025 |
| Popis: | Spatial proximity is an important metric in cattle behaviour, which is used to study social structure, dyadic relationships, as well as grazing and maternal behaviours. We developed an efficient, novel, non-invasive method to quantify the spatial proximity of beef cattle by using UAV-based image acquisition and photogrammetric analysis. Orthomosaics constructed by images obtained from UAVs were used to measure, with an accuracy of ±1.96 m (95% likelihood), the inter-individual distances between cows and calves. Aerial videos of the calves and their dams, held in a 5 ha pasture, were made over four days using UAVs. We used two UAVs to video-capture the following: (i) the location of all individuals (UAV flown at 100 m) and (ii) the identity of cow–calf pairs (UAV flown at 15–30 m). Still-images extracted from the UAV-acquired video screenshots were used to produce orthomosaics. The orthomosaics captured all the cows and calves in a single image, from which we measured the distance between related and non-related cow–calf pairs. This UAV-based orthomosaic method clearly showed that members of related pairs were closer than non-related ones, and that the distance was greater in the evening, demonstrating the utility of UAVs to accurately measure cattle spatial proximity. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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