Design and implementation of a GPS-enabled mobile wireless sensor network for livestock herd tracking in mongolian nomadic herding

摘要

In this paper we describe the design and implementation of a GPS-enabled mobile wireless sensor network system for tracking the locations and pasture utilization of livestock herd in Mongolian nomadic herding. The system consists of a mobile sink node, sensor nodes and a livestock management server. To solve the problems of network scalability and mobility, a ZigBee mesh network is adopted as a wireless sensor network architecture. For localization of livestock herd, we use a GPS-enabled mobile sink node which is mounted on the leader of livestock herd and keeps track of the presence of its members by communicating with them continuously. The livestock management server shows the locations of livestock herd and pasture utilization graphically in a web browser using the Google Map API in response to a user's request. The hardware and software of a mobile sink node and a sensor node are implemented using Arduino.