The short read range of current cattle electronic identification ear tags threatens to hinder the widespread adoption and utility of the USDA-developed National Animal Identification System (NAIS). Tag readers that require placement within inches of an animal's ear in order to read the NAIS number introduce obstacles at various points in the beef production cycle. This project will determine if beef producers and marketers can obtain NAIS numbers using wireless sensor network ear tags from a rapidly moving herd with greater surety than when using the slower, single-file, short read range identification devices. OBJECTIVES: Firstly, this project has an objective of showing that wireless sensor network based cattle ear tags can be manufactured using off-the-shelf radio circuitry at a weight of less than 25 grams including battery and packaging. A second objective is to demonstrate that such a tag can be read at distances of over 40 feet, at various angles around the tag, at various heights off the ground. A third objective is to show that the read range when tag is mounted on a stationary animal in a standard head chute is over 40 feet around the animal. The fourth objective is to demonstrate that NAIS numbers can be retrieved from a closely grouped pen of 40 cattle within 5 seconds. The final objective is to demonstrate that there is a 10-fold or greater savings in time to read NAIS numbers in an auction market simulation. This will show the feasibility of wireless sensor network technology as a worthy replacement for passive tag technology in high cattle traffic scenarios. APPROACH: This research will be divided into separate tasks. The first task will be the electronic integration design and assembly of active RFID cattle tag prototypes. Pre-assembled IEEE 802.15.4 boards are available from various companies. These boards are designed to be plugged into prototype assemblies for various applications, as is. ZigBeef, accordingly, will design a small circuit board that will supply the necessary interface to these pre-assembled boards. The completed tag assemblies and reader will next be taken to an empty and level field for range testing. A tag will be mounted on a plastic post, noting the particular direction the tag is facing. Measurements will then be taken completely around the tag along lines at 45-degree increments to 0 degrees. These circular read range measurements will be taken with the tag at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 feet from the soil. Next, we will find if the sheer mass of a beef animal will attenuate the RF signal and prohibit reading of the tag at various distances around the animal. Accordingly, ZigBeef will run RF power measurements similar to those in the previous task except with the tag affixed to a 400 to 500 pound animal held in a metal head gate. In this situation, RF attenuation effects of the metal head gate, the chute leading to the head gate, and the body mass of the animal will limit the range. In addition to longer read range, the ability to collect individual EID numbers from large groups of cattle simultaneously may be feasible by using active RFID tags. For this task, we will gather a herd of 40 cattle in a single pen within the proven range of the reader established in the previous tasks, and measure the average amount of time required to collect the IDs from the entire herd. We expect the collection process to take anywhere from a few milliseconds to tens of seconds, depending on settings in the software of the ear tag. Various software parameters can be adjusted to shorten this time to the minimum possible. This task will be performed iteratively while the software is tuned for best response time, all the while being aware of battery draw considerations. A five-second read time for all tags in the 40 cattle herd is desired. A direct comparison in the time required to use passive and active tags in an auction market scenario will be performed. A herd of approximately 40 head of 500 to 600 pound steers and heifers will be provided for the duration of this task. This comparison will involve finding the time required to take an inventory of EID NAIS numbers for the entire herd. The inventory will be taken using three separate EID usage scenarios: use of a wand-based reader, a walkthrough single-file reader, and finally the use of the ZigBeef long range EID tag reader. Results from the previous task should provide a relevant comparison in the time required to collect EID inventory from a herd of cattle when using three different types of EID collection techniques. We hope to see 10-fold or more savings in time to collect EID numbers with the ZigBeef Wireless Sensor network tags in comparison to the time required for the passive ID tag systems
