Objectives of the service
The service that is developed has the objective to enable a cost-effective Livestock and Animal Monitoring solution to be deployed in areas with no terrestrial network coverage or access to the power grid. Livestock Monitoring uses IoT technology to retrieve data regarding animal locations, movement, and health. The data is collected and analysed in order to enable the user to make better decisions to improve animal health and welfare, detect cattle theft, poaching to increase farming productivity and sustainability.
The main problem experienced by the customer prospects involved in the study was the lack of terrestrial network coverage in the areas where the end user wanted to implement livestock monitoring solutions. Through the user engagement activities additional pain points were raised including the high cost of current satellite communication solutions, requirements to integrate additional hardware, no access to power at the sites where the solution is deployed as well as a lack of visibility of the locations.
The objective of the study was therefore to define and design a service that provides a cost-effective livestock and animal monitoring solution using LoRaWAN and SatCom that is fully energy independent and that can be connected to cameras for remote image transfer.
Users and their needs
The user communities targeted includes two main direct customer segments that both have expressed interest in a livestock monitoring solution over SatCom. These two customer segments are the following.
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IoT solution manufacturers/system integrators
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Distributors and resellers of satellite services including satellite network operators
The users were located both within Europe in countries such as Belgium, Netherlands and the United Kingdom as well as in the Middle East in Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The users’ pain points identified in the project were the following:
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High Satellite airtime costs and connectivity issues when using SatCom
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Requiring different sensors or hardware integration for SatCom areas
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Lack of access to power
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Lack of visibility of remote sites when animals roam outside of areas with terrestrial network
Coverage
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High costs of transporting staff to the remote site for livestock monitoring
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High costs of cattle theft and undetected health issues
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The challenges to meet the needs is to minimize the data transmitted over satellite to the data points that generate value for the customer combined with designing a power-efficient solution that enables it while maintaining the Capital Expenditures as low as possible.
Service/ system concept
The MinFarm Tech Wildlife and Livestock Monitoring solution over SatCom consists of a system that provides satellite optimized uplink and downlink connectivity for LoRaWAN devices in the field. The livestock monitoring devices provides the user with geolocation and activity monitoring but can also detect additional health metrics depending on the specific sensor. The service enables and optimizes advanced LoRaWAN over Satellite features including compatibility with LoRaWAN cloud-based management tools, LoRaWAN sensor integration interfaces and power management features to provide the core technology for LoRaWAN device deployments in remote areas and to optimize it specifically for animal monitoring.
The solution also consists of an independent system that provides remote connectivity for cameras in the field in a satellite protocol and power optimized manner, enabling image transfer over low-power and low-cost satellite terminals. This service enables the user to remotely compress and trigger image capture as well as to integrate advanced edge intelligence features, including AI modules such as object counting and object recognition in the solution. The diagram below illustrates the system architecture of this system.
Space Added Value
The space assets that will contribute to the service that is developed are Satellite Communication services. Livestock farming frequently takes place in remote areas where access to terrestrial coverage may be unreliable or completely unavailable. Deploying terrestrial coverage for a Livestock Monitoring project would not be economically viable which leaves SatCom as the optimal connectivity solution available for these areas.
The bandwidth requirement for an IoT deployment utilizing LoRaWAN sensor technology optimized through the MinFarm protocol is low and the MinFarm Tech solution is flexible and can be used together with multiple SatCom Network Providers which provides this solution with a competitive advantage as it can be implemented anywhere in the world utilizing off-the-shelf LoRaWAN sensors, Gateway hardware and Satellite Terminals.
Current Status
The kick-start study has been completed and the prime contractor intends to propose a follow-on demonstration project. MinFarm Tech has secured interest of multiple customer prospects through the user engagement activities and is working with these customers to secure agreements for their support and engagement in the upcoming development and trial stage of the solution.
