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Coordinator

Mag. Maciej Oczak, PhD.
T +43 1 25077-6919  
E-Mail

The main focus of our research is to develop tools for management of livestock by continuous, automated real-time, monitoring of production/reproduction, health and welfare of livestock and environmental impact. Our objective is to measure continuously in an on-line way the responses of animals to their varying individual environment.

PLF-Hub aims to foster internal collaboration at the Vetmeduni but also with (inter)national experts in animal health, behaviour and welfare that are focused on research in PLF field. It is the foundational idea of the PLF-Hub to strengthen the internal collaboration at the Vetmeduni that should result in synergies of animal and engineering expertise necessary for development of PLF technologies.

Expertise

Core expertise of the PLF-Hub, which makes this research group unique within the Vetmeduni, is engineering and algorithm development. It has been recognized that in the context of digitalization in animal health and livestock farming this expertise should be strengthened. The PLF-Hub focuses on computer vision as the main technology for real-time livestock monitoring as it has several advantages over other technologies. It allows monitoring of a group of animals in a non-invasive way by use of just one sensor. Moreover, it has the potential to monitor multiple key indicators related to welfare, health and production of livestock. Sensor technologies such as RFID or accelerometer are applied to either extend the monitoring capabilities of computer vision or to circumvent the existing limitations of this technology.

Key body point detection

This Video presents key body point detection algorithm developed for purpose of monitoring pigs' behaviour.