Development of Wireless Stethoscope System for Livestock

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16H05009
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Agricultural environmental engineering/Agricultural information engineering
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Itoh Toshihiro 東京大学, 大学院新領域創成科学研究科, 教授 (80262111)
• Research Collaborator: TAKAMATSU Seiichi ; ARAI Shozo ; MIYAMOTO Toru ; MASUDA Takashi ; MOROTA Yuki ; ANDO Yoshiki ; MOCHIZUKI Kenki
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: リモートセンシング / センサネットワーク

Outline of Final Research Achievements

It has been desired to realize a system that evaluates the cattle’s stress from the variation of the heartbeat interval (RR interval) on farms, because the stress monitoring should be important for early detection of diseases, productivity improvement and animal welfare. In this study, a non-contact type plethysmography sensor which utilizes a microphone highly-sensitive to the cow’s heart sound frequency band was developed. In addition, an algorithm to calculate the heartbeat interval in a high accuracy was also developed. It was found that the calculated heartbeat interval from the calf’s heart sound which was detected by the non-contact sensor at a distance of 100 mm could be nearly equivalent to the RR interval by electrocardiography.

Free Research Field

無線センサネットワーク

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

動物の心拍間隔計測を行うことができれば、自律神経・ストレスの評価が可能となり、動物の健康管理が精密にできるようになると期待されるが、これまでは心電計や脈波計を装着して測定しなければならないため、動物の装着負担や計測への装着状態の影響などがあり、農家などで行うことは困難であった。本研究により、非接触で計測が行えるようになれば、上記の問題が解消され、農場へ導入することもできるようになるため、健康管理に基づく生産性をより高めた精密畜産が可能となる。