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Using a 3D camera to evaluate the back posture of dairy cows

  • S. Viazzi
  • , T. Van Hertem
  • , A. Schlageter-Tello
  • , C. Bahr
  • , C. E.B. Romanini
  • , I. Halachmi
  • , C. Lokhorst
  • , D. Berckmans

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this study, a new computer vision technique to automatically detect lameness in dairy cows was evaluated. A 3D camera system was used to extract the back posture of the animals from top view perspective in a fully automatic way. Four parameters to describe the curvature of the back of the cows were used by a decision tree to classify lame and not lame cows. The experiment was conducted in a commercial Israeli dairy farm. The classification performance of the 3D algorithm was evaluated against the visual locomotion scores given by an expert veterinary. A dataset of 273 cows served to train the model and a dataset of 906 cows to validate it. The analysis led to a sensitivity of 67% and a specificity of 90% on a 2-point level scale (lame or not lame) on the validation dataset. These results show that the application of a 3D camera in dairy farming is feasible and can be used in order to develop a fully automatic lameness monitoring tool in dairy farming.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAmerican Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Annual International Meeting 2013, ASABE 2013
PublisherAmerican Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers
Pages4222-4227
Number of pages6
ISBN (Print)9781627486651
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2013
Externally publishedYes
EventAmerican Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Annual International Meeting 2013 - Kansas City, MO, United States
Duration: 21 Jul 201324 Jul 2013

Publication series

NameAmerican Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Annual International Meeting 2013, ASABE 2013
Volume5

Conference

ConferenceAmerican Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Annual International Meeting 2013
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityKansas City, MO
Period21/07/1324/07/13

Keywords

  • 3D camera
  • Back arch
  • Dairy cow
  • Image processing
  • Lameness detection

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Agronomy and Crop Science
  • Bioengineering

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