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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Equids play a fundamental role in supporting livelihoods
in many parts of the world. Being able to access the
animal’s welfare, especially while performing tasks
that involve high levels of physical effort such as
those found in agroforestry activities, is of utmost
importance. The Donkey Sanctuary, a UK-based
international charitable institution, has designed a
project that aims to develop a set of tools to evaluate
the working conditions of donkeys and mules worldwide.
This requires the measurement of several different
parameters, including the force exerted by an animal
to pull a load during work. This article presents the
stages of design, development and implementation of
a device capable of carrying out these measurements
with minimal human intervention and with negligible
impact on the task operating conditions. Data obtained
from real fi eld conditions validates the devised
measurement method.
Description
Keywords
Working equids Animal welfare Embedded systems Electronic instrumentation Data acquisition Force measurement
Pedagogical Context
Citation
Coelho, João Paulo; Rodrigues, João Brandão; Queijo, Luis; Rosse, Higor Vendramini; Albuquerque, Francisco; Judge, Andrew; Cooke, Fiona; Garret, Chris (2021). Electronic instrumentation of a swingletree for equid pull load monitoring: a contribution for the welfare and performance of working donkeys. Animal Technology and Welfare. ISSN 1742-0385. 20:2, p. 111-125
Publisher
Institute of Animal Technology