Cow Lameness Detection Using Depth Image Analysis

In this paper, we introduce to detect cow lameness by using a depth video camera from the top view position. To classify cow lameness, we first extract the sequences of depth value of the cow body region and the maximum value of the back cow area. Then, we will find the average from the maximum height values of the cow backbone area. By using the average values as a feature vector, we classify the cow lameness with the aid of the Support Vector Machine (SVM). To confirm, we perform some experiments by using depth camera images on a real-life dairy farm. The experimental result shows that our proposed method is promising.