About
NUtrack Livestock Monitoring is an academic research system developed through a cross-disciplinary collaboration between the University of Nebraska–Lincoln's Department of Animal Science and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Built on advanced computer vision algorithms, NUtrack can accurately identify individual animals within group-housing environments and continuously monitor their behaviors without requiring physical tags or manual observation. Currently deployed for swine production research, NUtrack tracks a comprehensive set of posture and activity states including walking, standing, sternal lying, lateral lying, sitting, and time spent at feeders and waterers. This granular, automated behavioral data allows researchers and producers to gain unprecedented insight into animal health, welfare, and production efficiency on a per-animal basis. The NUtrack team is actively collaborating with academic and industry partners to expand the platform's behavioral detection capabilities. Target behaviors include subclinical symptoms of illness or injury, inter-animal fighting, aggression, and tail biting — all of which are costly and difficult to detect manually at scale. NUtrack is well-suited for swine researchers, animal welfare scientists, precision livestock farming innovators, and agricultural technology developers seeking a non-invasive, continuous, and scalable monitoring solution. As an academic research initiative, the system represents the cutting edge of AI-driven livestock management and is a valuable resource for those studying or advancing precision agriculture.
Key Features
- Individual Animal Identification: Uses computer vision to accurately identify and maintain the identity of individual animals within group-housing environments without physical tags.
- Continuous Behavior Tracking: Automatically monitors and records a full range of posture and activity states — walking, standing, lying sternal, lying lateral, sitting, and feeder/waterer visits — in real time.
- Health & Welfare Anomaly Detection: Actively being developed to detect complex and economically significant behaviors including subclinical illness/injury, aggression, fighting, and tail biting.
- Group-Housing Compatible: Designed specifically to monitor animals housed together in pens, making it practical for commercial and research production settings.
- Academic & Industry Collaboration: Developed and continuously improved through partnerships between university researchers in animal science, engineering, and livestock industry stakeholders.
Use Cases
- Swine production researchers automatically monitoring individual pig behavior and welfare metrics across pen-housed groups.
- Animal welfare scientists analyzing time-budget data (lying, standing, feeding) to assess stress and health outcomes in livestock.
- Precision agriculture technology developers integrating computer vision behavior tracking into commercial farm management systems.
- Veterinary and animal health teams detecting early subclinical signs of illness or injury through automated behavioral anomaly alerts.
- University and industry partners collaborating on AI-driven solutions to reduce manual labor in large-scale livestock health monitoring.
Pros
- Non-Invasive Monitoring: Tracks animal behavior using only cameras and computer vision — no physical sensors, tags, or devices need to be attached to animals.
- Continuous, Automated Data Collection: Eliminates the need for manual observation by providing 24/7 automated behavior logging at the individual animal level.
- Research-Grade Precision: Developed by a multidisciplinary university team with peer-reviewed publications, ensuring scientific rigor and accuracy.
Cons
- Currently Limited to Swine: The system is primarily validated for group-housed pigs; support for other livestock species is not yet fully available.
- Academic Research Stage: As a university research project, NUtrack may not yet have a commercially packaged, plug-and-play deployment option for producers.
- Infrastructure Requirements: Requires appropriate camera hardware, compute resources, and technical expertise to install and operate the computer vision pipeline.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is NUtrack?
NUtrack is a computer vision-based Precision Livestock Technology developed at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln that automatically identifies individual animals and continuously tracks their behaviors in group-housing settings.
Which animals does NUtrack currently support?
NUtrack is currently focused on group-housed pigs (swine). The research team is working to expand capabilities to other livestock species.
What behaviors can NUtrack detect?
NUtrack currently tracks walking, standing, lying sternal, lying lateral, sitting, and time at the feeder/waterer. Work is ongoing to detect aggression, fighting, tail biting, and subclinical illness or injury.
Is NUtrack free to use?
NUtrack is a university research initiative from UNL. Access and collaboration opportunities may be available at no cost for research purposes; contact the NUtrack team at [email protected] for details.
Who developed NUtrack?
NUtrack was developed through collaboration between the UNL Department of Animal Science (Dr. Ty Schmidt, Dr. Benny Mote) and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (Dr. Eric Psota, Dr. Lance Pérez, and Benjamin Riggan).
