Control system for sheep tracking network

Abstract

FlockWatch is part of an ongoing sheep tracking research project. The goal of this project is to design a system for locating sheep or other animals grazing in the mountains by using sensor nodes (Waspmote), equipped with GPS, GPRS and long range radio transmitters. The specific aim of this thesis is to provide a control and monitoring system in the form of a desktop application capable of showing at any time the position of the nodes (sheep) on a map, able to facilitate the configuration of the network and play historical data in a chronological order by interacting with a server where the database is stored. Additionally, FlockWatch is intended for use in the field when collecting the animals in an offline mode, together with a Waspmote node connected to the host portable computer and communicating with the other nodes on the sheep. A supplementary effort was invested into coding a sensor node that acts as a listener, intercepts the radio traffic around the flock and serves FlockWatch with data necessary for a real-time visualization.