WO2015008267A1

WO2015008267A1 - Recording system and method of positional identification of animals

Info

Publication number: WO2015008267A1
Application number: PCT/IB2014/063243
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jana LENDELOVÁ; Vladimír CVIKLOVIČ; Martin OLEJÁR; Štefan POGRAN
Original assignee: Slovenská Poľnohospodárska Univerzita V Nitre; Centrum Vedecko-Technických Informácií Sr (Cvti Sr)
Priority date: 2013-07-19
Filing date: 2014-07-19
Publication date: 2015-01-22
Also published as: WO2015008267A4; SK288687B6; SK6925Y1; SK500092016A3; SK1322013U1

Abstract

Universal recording system of positional identification of animals which helps to monitor and assess the behavior of the animals during the changes of the farming environment consists of two ultrasound distance measuring instruments (5, 6) positioned in the same vertical plane, where they record horizontal distance of the animal from the front side of the box and a vertical distance of the animal in the box from the ceiling of the stall object in such a way that the gathered data are after transmission and collection gathered by the dataloger (2) according e.g. to RS485 standard (10) and subsequently stored on a storage medium (1) or (3) to the standardized file type of choice for further statistical processing. The intensity of the emitted signal can be guided by the designed algorithm by the DA converter and the signal is amplified by amplifier, filtered and brought to the multiplexor's input and also on the full-wave rectifier's input, whereby the device processes the series of reflection not only from the temporal point of view, but also according to their intensity as measured by the AD converter.

Description

RECORDING SYSTEM AND METHOD OF POSITIONAL

IDENTIFICATION OF ANIMALS

Field of technology

A recording system and a method of positional identification of the animals is designed for evaluation of the rest and physical activities of the animals in the objects of animal production, as well as detection of the position of the monitored objects. State of the art

Dairy cattle usually lie for 8 to 12 hours. The lying of the dairy cattle in a bed or a corridor, respectively, as well as their standing on all four feet in the box, as well as their standing with two front legs in the box, etc. - all belong to important ethological phenomena, which characterize the animals' response to quality of the livestock farming environment. If the period of lying in case of a highly productive dairy cattle is prolonged, for example for about 1 hour a day, the production of the milk can rise by 1 ,7 kg per day and animal. The frequency of lying down and the length of individual intervals of the rest of the animals are an important manifestation of the cattle's well-being, as well as the health of the stabled animals with direct relationship to the utility parameters of the dairy cattle. Besides the quality of feeding and watering of the animals, the milk yield itself can be affected by the technical parameters of the stabling features of the stalls and micro-climate alongside the environmental pollution. In the livestock husbandry practices it is important to trace those parameters which the farmer can improve and which will help the welfare and productivity of the dairy cattle. To do so it is important to measure the activities of the animals before and after the implementation of changes with regard to technical parameters in the object.

The methods of evaluation known hitherto are: 1. methods of direct observation by manual booking method with trained observers with different recordings intervals and subsequent manual evaluation;

2. video-systems with camera and continuous monitoring with additional manual evaluation, or special camera video-systems with automatic evaluation by software;

3. monitoring of animals by multifunction pedometers.

All these methods can fulfill the observer's goal with bigger or lesser success and inform him about lying, standing or other behavior of the dairy cattle in the bed.

These methods have their advantages and disadvantages:

1. Method of direct observation is relatively simple and inexpensive, but it is dependent on the possible frequency of the recording by the observer. It is physically possible to record in 10 minute or 5 minute intervals. The lesser frequency is only possible to be used in a small and statistically insignificant group of animals. The precision of the results therefore depends on the size of the herd and the number of the observers capable of subjectively unified evaluation. The manual transfer of the written data for the electronic processing is complicated as well.

2. Camera systems provide an advantage of continual recording.

However, these are expensive as well as demanding for collection, storing and evaluation of data in the groups stabled in the low objects, which prompts the necessity of increasing the number of cameras in order to discern the recording during manual, individual evaluation; or it can be expensive with an automatic software for evaluation of the activities directly from the camera recordings. Issues regarding the recording in night have to be specifically addressed.

3. Multifunction pedometers are used to describe the individual activities of the concrete individuals. These have a pedometer installed on their limb, which is capable of automatically evaluating the data regarding the rest-motion activities of an animal. The device itself is, however, very expensive and if it is to be used for the large number of animals, it needs to come with the software which is comparably expensive to the camera system; moreover, it does not record an information about the position of the animal in the stall during the recording of the activity.

Solution according to publication US2005011466A1 measures the dimensions of an animal by optical recording, and the resulting image is processed by the complicated recognition software. This solution can be used for single-purpose measuring chambers through which an animal enters without being able to lie down. Such solution is expensive and therefore worthless for the repeated use in the lying cubicles of the herds.

Such solution is desired which will be reliable, easy to use, and capable of detecting not only the presence, but also a position of an animal; the solution should be resistant to stall environment, it should be inexpensive and it should not disturb the animals.

Subject matter of the invention

Abovementioned deficiencies concerning the recording of the activities of the animals are remedied by the recording system of the positional identification of the animals, whereby the essence of the invention lies in the fact, the by the means of ultrasound the positional behavior of the animal is monitored during the changes of the quality of the bed or environment, respectively, whereby it consists of two ultrasound sensors of the position of the animal located mutually in the same vertical plane, whereby the first one records the horizontal distance of the animal from the fronts side of the box and the second one measures the vertical distance of the animal in the box from the ceiling of the stable or stall object in such a way that it is possible to obtain unambiguously the identification of the position of the animal in the monitored box, whereby the recorded data are transferred by serial communication between master and slave ultrasound distance measuring instruments and the recordings such processed are collected by the data collection unit by means of physical layer RS-485 and subsequently they are stored on the storage medium into the standardized file type of choice for further statistical processing. The essence of the invention thus mainly lies in the fact that distance measuring instruments are used for detecting the position of the animal in the bed. Preferably, ultrasound distance measuring instruments will be used, but optical measuring can be used, too, for example dispersed laser beam and so on. By measuring the distance in at least two directions in one plane, and taking the knowledge concerning the anatomy of the sitting or lying animal into account, what can be evaluated is not only the simple presence of the animal, but also its position, that is, lying or standing either on all four or on two front legs. The terms "sensor of the position" or "position sensor" used in this description and claims therefore refer mainly to the distance measuring instrument connected to the system where the measured distance is interpreted as the position of the animal.

By "location of distance measuring instruments mutually in the vertical plane" a location in different but parallel planes is meant, too, provided that the planes are not as far away from each other as to tamper the measuring by a systematic error which, with regard to the dimensions and shape of the animal, would make the correct interpretation of the measured data more difficult.

In trial operation it has been proved preferable that the measuring is done by means of an ultrasound. The recording system of a positional identification of the animals is in such case further characterized by the fact that the air temperature is measured and being compensated for, and its uniqueness lies in the fact that the device processes a series of reflections not only from the point of view of time of the reflection, but also an intensity of reflection, which allows one to identify the presence and position of the animal in the bed - whether it stands (on four or two legs) or lies in the box - because the reflection from the litter has an intensity at least 30% lower than the reflection from the animal; the reflection from the construction has an intensity up to 3-times higher than animal, and thanks to these additional information it is possible to determine animal's activities in the box precisely. The information is inserted into files of standard types, which suitable for further statistical processing of the data (Excel, Statistica, Matlab, etc.).

A method of positional identification of the animals uses contactless monitoring of the animal in the box, or animal entering the box. By this method a contactlessly obtained data are sent to the data collection unit and they are stored in the storage medium and before and/or after storage they are assessed. The essence of the method according to this invention lies in the fact that the distance from the fixed points of measuring is measured in the box in at least one vertical direction and in at least one horizontal direction. The fixed points of measuring represent the points of location of the distance measuring instruments. The measured values are processed and evaluated, and the position is assigned to the animal according to dimensional and anatomical characteristics of the animal. The position of the animal, or at least the measured distances with the time of measuring, or a time stamp, are stored in the storage medium. In the horizontal direction the distance of the animal from the front side of the box is measured, in the vertical direction the distance of the animal from the ceiling in the middle of the box is measured. That way, we can gain the information with regard to animal's arrival to the box, as well as information with regard to its height.

It will be preferable if the distance in the horizontal direction is measured in the same vertical plane where the distance is measured in the vertical direction. The vertical plane of the measuring will usually be an axis plane of the box. It is a plane which corresponds to the orientation of the longitudinal axis of the animal.

During the use of ultrasound distance measuring an air temperature is measured in the box, too, and the value of the measured distance from the back wave is corrected according to the measured air temperature.

It is preferable if the data about the position of the animal and/or the data about the distance with the respective time of measuring and/or the data about the air temperature in the box are stored onto the removable storage medium, preferably with the USB or SD or microSD interface. This allows for a simple transfer from the stabling locality to the administrative center where the data will be statistically processed. Other type of transfer or transmission is possible, too, for example by a network card, wifi, ZigBee and so on. The gathered data are usually stored to data medium already in the stabling object or stall, and they can be subsequently carried on the removable memory element to the place of the analysis.

It is also preferable if the data about the position of the animal with the respective time of measuring and/or the data about distance with the respective time of measuring and/or the data about the air temperatures in the box are saved in the table format adjusted for the browsing and/or processing in the personal computer. Thanks to such adjustment the gathered data can be used in the already existing programs which are usually part of the office packs. Such simple data interface diminishes the costs of use of the system according to this invention.

During the data collection from the distance measuring instruments to the central data collection unit not only a classical data connection by the means of cables can be used, but its elements can be connected contactlessly, too, by the known protocols and using the power supply from its own rechargeable accumulators. This allows for fast mounting of the system when a temporary deployment is necessary, for example during the renting of the system, etc.

The recording system of the positional identification of the animals can be extended by increasing the number of monitored boxes as well as increasing the number of distance sensors inside one box. The system can be positionally mounted according to the dimensional parameters of the monitored object.

The recording system of the positional identification of the animals as a contactless ultrasound solution can be used both during the day and during the night; the proposed method of the recording is a converted to the output type of choice by the converter, and there is a possibility of an automatic imputation of the monitord activities.

The recording system of the positional identification of the animals can use half-duplex asynchronous serial communication between the units monitoring the boxes for the local data collection. The communication is guided by the data collection unit and the gathered data concerning the detected distances and corresponding intensity values of the reflected signal at the peak, as well as the respective air temperature, are stored in the standardized structured file of the ^*.csv or ^*.mat format through the USB interface to the USB or SD card or through SPI interface. The system is supplied by power from the distribution power line from the stabilized source of DC voltage with galvanically isolated output. Two ultrasound distance measuring instruments are mounted in a single box, whereby one is master device and other one is slave device. The master ultrasound distance measuring instrument directly communicates with the data collection unit and sends the information from the slave measuring instrument, too, whereby it gathers the information by the synchronous serial communication. The slave device is supplied by power from the master device by the communication cable route. Such hierarchical arrangement of the master/slave elements diminishes the amount of cables needed whereby it does not diminish the data permeability in the given application.

The distances are measured and computed with and alongside the data concerning the intensity of the reflected signal and the air temperature, which is measured by the intelligent digital sensor. The air temperature is a disturbance variable for the speed of acoustic wave propagation, which affects the measured distance. The inbuilt microprocessor compensates the effect of the temperature. The frequency of the ultrasound signal is guided by the microprocessor and created in the field of programmable counters and in the module for frequential output, by means of which the length of the emitted wave is guided. The intensity of the wave emitted from the piezoelectric converter is guided by the microprocessor by the means of digital-analogue converter (henceforth DA converter) and guided voltage source, which supplies the double bridge power amplifier with power.

The reflected acoustic waves are captured by the piezoelectric receiver and the electric signal of this receiver is amplified by the voltage amplifier and subsequently filtered by the selective active filter. The filtered signal is rectified by the full-wave rectifier and alongside the signal from the filter it is led to the analogue multiplexor's input. The selected signal is converted to numeric form by the analogue-digital converter (henceforth AD converter) and the information about the intensities is gathered by the microprocessor. The signal capturing is realized by comparator which calls for the interruption of the microprocessor. The switching level is set by the microprocessor with help of the DA converter connected to the inverting input of the comparator. Depending on the time of response, the intensity of the response and the air temperature, an animal is localized and identified. The communication module for the half-duplex synchronous communication is connected to the voltage levels inverter and it is designed for local communication connection inside the modules into one box. The module for asynchronous serial communication (UART - universal asynchronous receiver - henceforth as UART) is connected to the UART/RS-485 converter and connected to the main communication line between the boxes and the data collection unit. The temperature inside the objects is also measured in order to prevent systematic errors caused by high temperatures.

The proposed solution uses a wave of 40 kHz frequency, because the maximum perceptive frequency of the cattle is under 38 kHz. In general, such wavelength or frequency should be used, which would not only be harmless for the give sort of animal, but, preferably, the animal will not register it at all.

Moreover, the system can be set in such a way that it will measure distances and assess the position of the animal in a certain measuring frequency only, that is, with breaks, which would be preferably set with regard to the speed of the animals movement, that is, the measuring will take place, for example, only every 5 seconds. By doing so the amount of data diminishes. Such arrangement is also possible where the tempo changes according to the previous assessment of the animal's behavior; for example if the data are repetitive the length of the break between measurings will increase.

This technical solution substitutes the communication between the farmer and the cattle, because it allows to find the suitability of the construction and the environment, and it also concerns the innovative contactless continual possibility of monitoring and assessing the behavior of the dairy-cattle during the necessary changes to farming environment, and it does so by device designed for fast assessment of whether the changes in the farming environment are accepted by the dairy-cattle.

The recording system of the positional identification of the animals can be used specifically in the livestock objects. The prototype suggests the possibilities of its use for the dairy-cattle, and repeated use in multiple sets for any number of animals. It is suitable for stalls with both the deepened and raised bed boxes; it can be mounted on the new buildings but also in older objects. It allows one to authentically follow animals of various ages without the presence of a man, and to do so in under lighting of any intensity and in any climatic conditions. It can be used to diagnose the diseases of the limbs with regard to constructions of the bed elements and its parameters, quality and the amount of litter, or the quality and the surface treatment of the mattresses, respectively.

It is suitable also for the pig housing, in the maternity stalls, in the fattening stations, etc. The system can be helpful in the stalls for horses for increasing the quality of the farming environment, as well as for diagnostic purposes. In each case the system is easy to mount, it allows for gathering of data about animals without being disturbed by the observer, and it allows for precise statistical processing of the data from the whole series of continually monitored boxes without the presence and work of the personnel being required. It can be used for positional identification of the objects in halls, in warehouses, during goods expedition, etc.; preferably it can be used where the multi-position mounting of the object is possible. System can be supplied by the alarm unit, preferable of a software nature, which will assess the data about the animal's position and can - according to preset criteria - signalize the abnormal behavior of the animal, for example sudden and repeated changes of position.

The advantage of the solution according to the abovementioned invention is a simple and reliable detection of the position of the animal in the demanding environment of the stalls, where the solutions known hitherto required cleanliness and maintenance and were costly. The invention does not disturb the monitored animals and the measuring instruments are not in direct contact with an animal. The invention supplies the gathered values in an interface which allows for processing by the means of the common software.

Brief description of drawings

The invention is further disclosed by figures 1 to 7. Particular representations of animals, constructions of boxes, concrete communication standards as well as the scales used are for illustration purposes only and they cannot be interpreted as limiting the requested scope of protection.

Figure 1 - A principle of the evaluation of the case where the monitored lying area in the box (e.g. 13) is vacant and the absence of the animal has been detected by means of an ultrasound device (5 - slave, 6 - master) and detected length and height hi.

Figure 2 - A principle of the evaluation of the case where according to the information from the ultrasound device (5 - slave, 6 - master) the animal stands with two front legs in the box, because by assessing the resulting length l₂ and height h₂ it has been detected that the animal is absent in the front side of the bed (h₂=h ), while it has already entered the rear side of the box by two front legs.

Figure 3 - A principle of the evaluation of the case where the animal stands with all four legs in the box, because according to the information from the ultrasound device (5 - slave, 6 - master) by assessing the resulting length l₃ and height h₃ it has been unambiguously determined that the animal entered the box with all four legs, but it did not lie down.

Figure 4 - A principle of the evaluation of the case where the animal wholly lies in the box, because according to the information from the ultrasound device (5 - slave, 6 - master) by assessing the resulting length l₄ and height h₄ it has been unambiguously determined that the animal entered the box with all four legs and it has lied down.

Figure 5 - Electrical block diagram, where there is:

1 - universal serial bus USB-flash (hereinafter "USB")

2 - data collection unit

3 - SD card

4 - power supply

5 - slave module

6 - master module

7 - USB communication

8 - SPI - Serial Peripheral Interface (hereinafter "SPI")

9 - power distribution

10 - physical layer RS-485

11 - secondary power distribution

12 - half-duplex synchronous serial communication SMBus (hereinafter "SMBus")

13 - box - bed 1

14 - box - bed 2

15 - box - bed 3

16 - box - bed 4

17 - box - bed N Figure 6 - Master measuring device block diagram, where there is:

101 - piezoelectric ultrasound receiver

102 - amplifier

103 - selective filter for received signal

104 - precise full-wave rectifier

105 - analogue multiplexor

106 - AD converter (analogue-digital)

107- analogue comparator

108 - ultrasound piezoelectric transmitter

109 - double bridge amplifier

110 - voltage-controlled source

111 - DA converter

112 - controlled precise generator of the transmitted signal frequency

113 - field of programmable counters

114 - single-chip microprocessor

115 - temperature sensor

116 - communication module SMBus

117 - microprocessor ports of general use

118 - communication module for asynchronous serial communication

119 - environment temperature

120 - UART / RS485 converter

121 - converter of transistor logic (hereinafter "TTL") voltage level to symmetrical 12 V

Figure 7 - Slave device block diagram, whereby the slave device can only communicate with master device (individual items as in figure 6). Examples of realization

Example 1

The system for the positional identification of the animals consists of two ultrasound sensors of the position of an animal - master 6 and slave 5 - positioned in the single vertical plane, whereby the master 6 is located on the front side of the box and the slave 5 is located above the middle of the box in the ceiling construction, whereby master 6 and slave 5 ultrasound distance measuring instruments are connected by power supply line H and a communication line 12; the master 6 units in all boxes are connected with the data collection unit 2 by the means of physical layer, in this example a physical layer RS485 0 and they are connected to the power supply 4 by the power supply line 9, whereby the data collection unit is connected with the storage medium 1 or 3.

Communication controls the data collection unit 2 by RS485 standard

10 and the gathered data concerning the detected distances, the corresponding intensities of the reflected signal in the peak and the air temperature, are stored in the standard structured file in ^*.csv or ^*.mat format on the USB flash 1 through USB interface 7, or on the SD card 3 through SPI interface 8. The system is supplied by power from the electric supply line by the stabilized source of DC voltage 4 with the galvanically separated output 9. In this example, the system uses the frequency of 40 kHz.

The reflected acoustic waves are captured by the piezoelectric receiver 101 , whereby its electric signal is amplified by voltage amplifier 102 and it is subsequently filtered by the selective filter for received signal 103. The filtered signal is rectified by the precise full-wave rectifier 104 and carried, alongside the signal from the filter, to the input of analogue multiplexor 105. The chosen signal is converted to the numeric form by AD converter 106 and the information about intensities is gathered by the microprocessor 114. Capture of the signal is realized by means of comparator 107 which calls for interruption of the microprocessor 114. The switching level is set by microprocessor 114 by help of the DA converter 111 which attaches the inverting input onto the comparator. Depending on the time and intensity response, as well as on the air temperature, an animal is localized and identified. The communication module for the synchronous half-duplex communication 16 is connected to the converter of the voltage levels 121 and it is designated for local communication connection in the modules of one box. The module for asynchronous serial communication (UART) 118 is connected to UART/RS485 converter 120 and it is connected with the main communication line between the boxes and with the data collection unit. Amplifier 109 is designed to excite the ultrasonic transmitters due to higher transmission power.

The transmitted signal is controlled by the algorithm designed according to the particular needs; the intensity of the transmitted acoustic wave is guided by the DA converter V and the voltage-controlled source 110 and the time span is guided by the field of programmable counters 1 3 and precise frequency source 112. The system also includes an intelligent digital temperature sensor 119 which helps to compensate the temperature as a disturbance which affects the speed of the ultrasound wave propagation in the air; the master microprocessor communicates with the temperature sensor 119 by the microprocessor ports of general use 117. In order to prevent systematic errors stemming from the high temperatures, the temperature is measured inside the device by the temperature sensor 115, too.

Device according to this example has been installed and tested on the farm of the applicant, where it monitors the behavior of the animal (dairy- cattle) when the quality of the bed changes. Both parts of the system are mounted in the protective sleeve to the fixed existing parts of the object and they are removable; after each experiment finishes they can be used in another place and in another object. Example 2 In this example two ultrasound distance measuring instruments 5, 6 are used for each box, but they do not have a mutual priority set. In this example both ultrasound distance measuring instruments 5, 6 use an IEEE 802.15 standard-based ZigBee module for communication with the data collection unit 2. Multiple jump routing allows one to lower the energy demands for the contactless communication in the large stalls, whereby it is not necessary to physically lay cables to connected individual elements of the system. The data collection unit 2 is supplied from the electrical system, preferably - due to security issues - by the galvanic part. Other elements of the system which are distributed in the boxes are supplied by power from accumulators, batteries or AC/DC adapters. The net is created automatically in ad hoc regime. In such arrangement the ultrasound distance measuring instruments 5, 6 can be moved according to needs to boxes with the animals that are currently monitored. The ultrasound distance measuring instruments 5, 6 send the data expressing the changes with regard to the previous state to the data collection unit 2, which lowers the amount of communicated data.

In another example of the realization a different structure and different protocols for the communication between the distance measuring instruments 5, 6 and the data collection unit 2 can be used. Particular arrangement of communication routes, the architecture of the connection, the processing and evaluation algorithms, all would depend on the local conditions of deployment, for example on whether the deployment will be temporary or permanent, whether the system will be implemented to the existing buildings or designed during the projecting of a new building, etc.

Industrial applicability

The industrial applicability is obvious. According to this invention it is possible to repeatedly assess the position of animals and also produce, compose and use the system for realization of the abovementioned method of positional identification of the animals.

Claims

PATE NT C LAI MS

1. A method of a positional identification of the animals with a contactless monitoring of an animal which is or enters into a box, whereby the box is designed for lying of the animal; the method, whereby the contactlessly gathered data are sent to a data collection unit, stored on a storage medium and processed before and/or after storing, i s c h a ra c t e r i z e d b y t h e f a c t t h a t

a distance of the animal from the fixed points in the box are measured at least in one vertical direction and at least in one horizontal direction in the box,

in the horizontal direction the distance of a front of the animal from a front of the box is measured,

the gathered data are processed and assessed in such a way that a position of the animal in the box is assigned according to its dimensional and anatomical characteristics,

the position of the animal alongside with a time stamp is stored on a storage medium.

2. The method of the positional identification of the animals according to claim 1 , i s c h a r a c t e r i z e d b y t h e f a c t t h a t in the vertical direction the distance of the animal is measured from a ceiling in the middle of the box.

3. The method of the positional identification of the animals according to claim 1 or 2, i s c h a r a c t e r i z e d b y t h e f a c t t h a t the distance in horizontal direction is measured in a same vertical plane in which the distance in vertical direction is measured.

4. The method of the positional identification of the animals according to claim 3, i s c h a r a c t e r i z e d b y t h e f a c t t h a t the vertical plane of measuring is an axis plane of the box.

The method of the positional identification of the animals according to any of the claims 1 to 4, i s c h a ra c t e r i z e d b y t h e f a c t t h a t the distances are measured by an ultrasound, preferably with a frequency outside a reach where it can be perceived by the identified animal.

The method of the positional identification of the animals according to claim 5 i s c h a ra c t e r i z e d b y t h e f a c t t h a t the frequency is equal or above 40 kHz.

The method of the positional identification of the animals according to the claims 5 or 6, i s c h a ra c t e r i z e d b y t h e f a c t t h a t an air temperature is also measured in the box and a measured value of a reflected wave is corrected according to the measured air temperature.

The method of the positional identification of the animals according to any of the claims 1 to 7, i s c h a ra c t e r i z e d b y t h e f a c t t h a t the measuring and storing of the data about the position of the animal is done with the breaks in a preset tempo.

The method of the positional identification of the animals according to any of the claims 1 to 8, i s c h a ra c t e r i z e d b y t h e f a c t t h a t the data about the position of the animal with the respective time of the measuring and/or the data about the distance with the respective time of the measuring and/or the data about the air temperature in the box are stored on a removable memory element, preferably with USB or SD or microSD interface.

10. The method of the positional identification of the animals according to any of the claims 1 to 9, i s c h a ra c t e r i z e d b y t h e f a c t t h a t the data about the position of the animal with the respective time of the measuring and/or the data about the distance with the respective time of the measuring and/or the data about the air temperature in the box are stored in a table format adjusted for browsing and/or processing in a personal computer.

11. The method of the positional identification of the animals according to any of the claims 1 to 10, i s c h a ra c t e r i z e d b y t h e f a c t t h a t the data about the position of the animal with the respective time of the measuring are statistically evaluated and a behavior of the animal which deviates from the range of values according to the set criteria is signaled as a state of emergency to the personnel.

12. A system of a positional identification of the animals i s c h a r a c t e r i z e d b y t h e f a c t t h a t it consists of two ultrasound sensors of a position of an animal, a master (6) and a slave (5), located in a same vertical plane, whereby the master (6) is located on a front side of a box and the slave (5) is located above the middle of the box in a ceiling construction, whereby the master (6) and the slave (5) ultrasound distance measuring instruments are connected by a power line (11) and a communication line (12), and the master (6) units of all boxes are connected with a data collection unit (2) by a physical layer of a communication interface (10) and connected to a power supply (4) by a power line (9), whereby the data collection unit is connected to a storage medium (1) or (3).

13. The system of the positional identification of the animals according to the claim 12 i s c h a ra c t e r i z e d b y t h e f a c t t h a t it allows to increase the number of the monitored boxes (13, 14, 15, 16, 17) and to increase the number of the slave (5) distance measuring instruments within one box and that it is possible to install it positionally according to the dimensional parameters of a monitored object, where an air temperature is measured by a temperature sensor (119) in each box separately.

14. The system of the positional identification of the animals according to the claim 12 or 13 i s c h a r a c t e r i z e d b y t h e f a c t t h a t the data collection unit (2) is, for the purpose of a data transmission, equipped by a serial interface (8) and/or USB interface and/or SD interface and/or microSD interface and/or contactless interface.

15. The system of the positional identification of the animals according to any of the claims 12 to 14 i s c h a r a c t e r i z e d b y t h e f a c t t h a t a frequency of the ultrasound is outside a reach where it can be perceived by the identified animal, preferably it is equal or above 40 kHz.