Real-time livestock activity monitoring via fine-tuned faster R-CNN for multiclass cattle behaviour detection

Ahmad, Misbah; Zhang, Wenhao; Smith, Melvyn; Brilot, Ben; Bell, Matt

Abstract

Automated cattle activity detection plays a pivotal role in modern livestock management, significantly impacting animal welfare and operational efficiency. This paper introduces an automated approach for cattle activity detection using advanced deep learning-based architecture named Faster-RCNN. The deep learning model addresses the simultaneous detection and precise localization of three primary cattle activities in the input image: standing, lying, and walking. The methodology involves fine-tuning a pre-trained model using a dataset collected from a real-time barn environment at Hartpury University Farm. Overall, the proposed approach is based on data pre-processing and fine-tuning steps. Data augmentation techniques, such as random cropping, flipping, and rotation, ensure dataset diversity. This enriches the model's generalization ability across various lighting conditions and cattle orientations. The fine-tuning process adapts a pre-trained model, initially trained on a general object detection dataset. We adjust the model's architecture to the subtleties inherent in different cattle activities through training on our custom cattle activity dataset. This process ensures the model's significance in accurately detecting and classifying the distinct behaviours of cattle. Experimental results demonstrate the model's effectiveness in identifying and localizing cattle activities. The model correctly predicted of standing, lying, and walking events with accuracy rate of 0.94, 0.92 and 0.89 respectively.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: 2023 IEEE 14th Annual Ubiquitous Computing, Electronics and Mobile Communication Conference, UEMCON 2023
• Start Date: Oct 12, 2023
• End Date: Oct 14, 2023
• Acceptance Date: Sep 12, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Nov 17, 2023
• Publication Date: Nov 17, 2023
• Deposit Date: Nov 20, 2023
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
• Book Title: 2023 IEEE 14th Annual Ubiquitous Computing, Electronics & Mobile Communication Conference (UEMCON)
• ISBN: 9798350304145
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/uemcon59035.2023.10316066
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/11456767