System for determining a walked distance of an animal within a barn

A system (100) for determining a respective walked distance of animals (101, 102, 103) within a barn (200) during a predetermined time period, the barn being configured with walls and movement restrictions, the system (100) comprising:

• a tag (110) associated with each of the animals (101, 102, 103), each said tag (110) comprising:
• a memory (530) storing a tag identity;
• a radio transmitter (520);
• and
• a processing device (510) configured to transmit a radio signal via the radio transmitter (520), repeatedly at a regular time interval;
• wherein each said radio signal comprises the tag identity;
• a processing controller (150);
• a database (140), comprising historical trajectories (430) of the animals (101, 102, 103), associated with respective said animals (101, 102, 103), wherein each of the historical trajectories (430) comprises position coordinates;
• a positioning controller (130);
• and
• at least three receivers (120a, 120b, 120c), each of the receivers positioned at a respective predetermined position in the barn (200), each of the receivers configured to:
• receive the transmitted radio signals;
• and
• communicate information related to the received radio signals with the positioning controller (130);
• wherein the positioning controller (130) is configured to repeatedly:
• obtain the information related to the received radio signals, received from the respective receivers (120a, 120b, 120c), for each said tag identity;
• calculate a set of said position coordinates of the tag (110) comprising the respective said tag identity based on the information related to the received radio signals of the radio transmitter (520) received by the receivers (120a, 120b, 120c);
• provide data entities (301), each data entity (301) comprising the calculated position coordinates of the tag (110) associated with a timestamp and/or an index number to the processing controller (150);
• and
• wherein the processing controller (150) is configured to:
• determine the walked distance of a given said animal (101) associated with the tag (110) comprising the tag identity by estimating a walked trajectory (450) during the predetermined time period, by:
• detecting whether a gap (420) exceeding a threshold time, of a plurality of missing or incomplete said data entities (301) in sequence among the obtained data entities (301) exists;
• if the gap is not detected,
• establishing the walked trajectory (450) based on the obtained data entities (301), and
• storing the established walked trajectory (450) in the database (140) associated with the given said animal (101), and
• if the gap is detected, establishing the walked trajectory (450) by inserting a replacement distance data in the detected gap (420) exceeding the threshold time, of a plurality of the missing or incomplete data entities (301) in sequence among the obtained data entities (301), based on historical trajectories (430) extracted from the database, and
• wherein the database (140) comprises a virtual representation (300) of the barn (200) wherein the walls and movement restrictions (210, 220, 230) of the barn (200) have a corresponding virtual restriction (310, 320, 330) with corresponding positions;
• and wherein the processing controller (150) is configured to insert the replacement distance data in the detected gap (420) exceeding the threshold time, of a plurality of the missing or incomplete data entities (301) in sequence among the obtained data entities (301), based on knowledge about positions of movement restrictions (210, 220, 230) in the barn (200), extracted from the database (140).