Development of Electronic Control Circuits for WSN: Towards a Livestock Tracking and Identification System

Botswana’s beef sector contributes 0.3% of the total world beef exports, i.e. US$ 42.4 billion as of the year 2013 and her major market is the European Union (EU). Unfortunately, her failure to comply with the frequently changing European Commission (EC) export regulations on livestock tracking and identification means that beef export to this market is sometimes suspended. Research trends indicate that smart agriculture solutions have gained popularity in agricultural production and can help keep up with the frequently changing EC export regulations especially on active tracking and identification of livestock. It is against this background that this paper presents the development of electronic control circuits for Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) and Group Special Messaging (GSM) to be utilized in a livestock tracking and identification system. It is envisaged that the proposed solution would help fulfill potential changes of EC regulations. Proteus 8 software is used to develop the circuit models. The controller used for this work is Arduino microcontroller. Simulation results show that the XBee shields are able to communicate successfully. This communication forms the basis for the WSN. The results indicate that the developed electronic control circuits for the WSN are viable. Future work will focus on the development of a prototype that will be tested and validated in real environment.