Abstract:The behavioral information on individual animal has a considerable relationship with animal’s welfare and diseases. Thus, perceiving animal information and behaviors are fundamental to precision livestock farming. A research review of respiration detection, locomotion score, body condition score, individual identification, behavioral analysis,etc. were summarized focusing on large animals,including cows, pigs, sheep， which are prevalent instock farming industry. And a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of different methods applied in all the aspects was presented in this review. In term of individual information acquisition and analysis(e.g., individual identification and body condition score), solutions based on 3D camera and depth image processing technolygy were emphasized, because such cameras were more robust to the environment when extracting the animal target from the image. In addition, locomotion score was one of the most important topics in precision livestock farming. Electronic sensors, audio recorder and digital cameras were used to perceive the individual information and prove feasible to detect the animals’ lameness automatically. Because of the earlier lameness detection requirements of practical application, the pathology of the limbs and hooves disease, the automatic trauma detection and universal parameters of lameness without scoring system should be considered in the future. In the behavior analysis aspect, some new research approaches were emphasized including the limb segmentation algorithm and the combination with human behavior analysis theory and method. Considering the development trend and requirements of practical application in precision farming, animals’ social behavior should be considered. The precision live farming should also consider the effectiveness, robustness and the stress to animals of the detection equipments, continue to move in contactless, high precision and automation direction.
