A farm animal kinetic energy harvesting device for IoT applications

In this paper the authors present a novel application for electromagnetic kinetic energy harvesting focusing on farm animal wearables used in precision livestock farming IoT technologies. Converting the locomotion of domesticated animals, like cow steps or cow ear movement, into electrical energy with inertial kinetic energy harvesters hasn’t been fully researched thus far. The kinetic energy converted this way could potentially be used to power smart farming wearables used for location, disease or lifecycle events detection, thus eliminating the need for finite lifetime batteries. In this work, a proof-of-concept of a cow step energy harvester is presented in detail. At first a short review of the state of the art is given which formed the basis of the research, followed by locomotion logging experiments. Finite element modelling of the kinetic energy harvester is used for parameter analysis and initial design followed by laboratory testing and available power estimation. Finally, the construction of the wearable harvester is presented together with custom wearable measuring equipment. Field experiments were performed with free grazing Finncattle at a dairy farm in Tampere, Finland, which proved that a cow step based kinetic energy harvester can be used to power a Bluetooth beacon.