On-Barn Pig Weight Estimation Based on Body Measurements by Structure-from-Motion (SfM)

• Published in: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 18; no. 11; p. 3603
• Main Authors: Pezzuolo, Andrea, Milani, Veronica, Zhu, DeHai, Guo, Hao, Guercini, Stefano, Marinello, Francesco
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI 24.10.2018; MDPI AG
• Subjects: Algorithms; animal weight; Animals; automatic measurement; Heart Rate - physiology; Photogrammetry - methods; pig barn; Software; structure from motion; Swine; three-dimensional reconstruction; structure from motion; pig barn; animal weight; automatic measurement; three-dimensional reconstruction
• ISSN: 1424-8220; 1424-8220
• DOI: 10.3390/s18113603

Information on the body shape of pigs is a key indicator to monitor their performance and health and to control or predict their market weight. Manual measurements are among the most common ways to obtain an indication of animal growth. However, this approach is laborious and difficult, and it may be stressful for both the pigs and the stockman. The present paper proposes the implementation of a Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry approach as a new tool for on-barn animal reconstruction applications. This is possible also to new software tools allowing automatic estimation of camera parameters during the reconstruction process even without a preliminary calibration phase. An analysis on pig body 3D SfM characterization is here proposed, carried out under different conditions in terms of number of camera poses and animal movements. The work takes advantage of the total reconstructed surface as reference index to quantify the quality of the achieved 3D reconstruction, showing how as much as 80% of the total animal area can be characterized.