Ownership Identification of Reindeer Calf Using Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN)

Abstract

This paper presents a technique for identifying the ownership of new-born reindeer claves using wireless sensor networks (WSNs), which is an important tool that can be used to acquire useful information about animals’ activities and movements. Reindeer are semi wild and they give birth while in the wild. Although reindeer cows usually carry identification tags or signs of their owners, it is difficult to identify the ownership of the calves within a mixed herd. Currently, identification is performed in the traditional way which is stressful on both animals and herders and quite costly and time consuming. Various potential WSN technologies are considered in this work with special attention paid to RFID tags and subsequently, a method based on Wi-Fi enabled RFID tags is proposed. Localization techniques play an important role in the proposed method, hence localization algorithms are discussed thoroughly. This work aims to pave the way for the use of wireless sensor networks for the purpose of matching mother reindeer to their calves and for other matching purposes in animal welfare and industry.