Sensors instead of cowbells
Bosch’s Absolute Orientation Sensor BNO055 is suitable for a wide range of purposes, e.g. augmented reality applications, sophisticated computer games and intelligent fitness devices. Thanks to Simon Casey from Bosch Australia, it can now even be used to keep track of cattle herds. Growing up on a farm in Australia, Simon Casey experienced how difficult and exhausting it can be to watch over a herd of cattle. Regardless of the weather conditions or the size of the fields, farmers have to monitor their cows, otherwise they tend to wander off or are at risk of being harmed by sickness or a predator.
Now being an engineer at Bosch, he had the perfect idea of how to make the life of a farmer a little easier: He built a smart monitoring device, which contains the BNO055 sensor and takes over the responsibility of monitoring the herd. This Absolute Orientation Sensor combines an accelerometer, a yaw-rate sensor, a geomagnetic sensor and a microprocessor in a single package. Installed in his smart “iHerd” device, the farmer is now able to track a cow’s location and more importantly the cow’s head motion without having to physically watch the herd. Evaluating this information, a farmer not only knows where the cow spent the day but also if a cow is eating properly, if it is chewing the cad or lying down. All of this information allows the farmer to monitor the health and the vitalty of his animals.