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610 IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 15, NO. 1, JANUARY 2015
A Zigbee-Based Animal Health Monitoring System
Anuj Kumar and Gerhard P. Hancke, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract— An animal health monitoring system for monitoring
the physiological parameters, such as rumination, body tem-
perature, and heart rate with surrounding temperature and
humidity, has been developed. The developed system can also
analyze the stress level corresponding to thermal humidity
index. The IEEE802.15.4 and IEEE1451.2 standards-based sensor
module has been developed successfully. The zigbee device and
PIC18F4550 microcontroller are used in the implementation of
sensor module. The graphical user interface (GUI) is imple-
mented in LabVIEW 9 according to the IEEE1451.1 standard.
The real-time monitoring of physiological and behavioral para-
meters can be present on the GUI PC. The device is very helpful
for inexpensive health care of livestock. A prototype model is
developed and tested with high accuracy results.
Index Terms—Zigbee, sensors, wireless transmission,
physiological parameters, temperature humidity index.
I. INTRODUCTION
IN RECENT times, the livestock farmers faced cattle health
problems around the world because of continuous rise in air
temperature in the troposphere. The variations in temperature
on animals health has harmful effect leading to diseases such
as foot and mouth disease, swine fever, bovine spongioform
encephalopathy (mad cow disease), bovine rhinotracheitis,
squamous cell carcinoma, warts, web tear, necrotic pododer-
matitis, polioencephalomalacia, hypomagnesaemia, clostridia
disease and hypoglycemia [1], [2]. WHO report stated that the
severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus (SARS-CoV)
is said to be an animal virus that spread easily to other animals
and have also affected human being directly. The evidence of
humans getting infected is first reported in the Guangdong
province of southern China in 2002 and since then till 2003
the 26 countries across the globe reported infections caused
by SARS. This has resulted in the economic loss to the tune of
approximately 2% of the total East Asian GDP (gross domestic
product) [3]. For these reasons a system is needed to be in
place for continuously monitoring the animal health and to
control and prevent the eruption of diseases at large scale.
Technology is already part of modern farming and is play-
ing an increasing role as more advanced systems and tools
become available. In recent years, one of the biggest areas of
Manuscript received June 10, 2014; revised August 9, 2014; accepted
August 9, 2014. Date of publication August 18, 2014; date of current version
November 11, 2014. The associate editor coordinating the review of this paper
and approving it for publication was Prof. Subhas C. Mukhopadhyay.
A. Kumar is with the Department of Electrical, Electronics and Computer
Engineering, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa (e-mail:
anuj.kumar@up.ac.za).
G. P. Hancke is with the Department of Computer Science, City University
of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, and also with the University of Pretoria,
Pretoria 0002, South Africa (e-mail: gp.hancke@cityu.edu.hk).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JSEN.2014.2349073
development has been in electronic livestock farming. Many
researches are focused on the development of animal health
telemonitoring systems.
The health monitoring is depending on two methods such as
direct contact (invasive) or in indirect contact (non invasive).
Basically a prototype telemonitoring system consists of sens-
ing unit and receiving unit with PC [4]–[7]. Smith et al. [8]
proposed a cattle health monitoring system and they are
focused on head motion, core body temperature, and heart
rate. The core of the system is an AMD186 processor on
a turn microcontroller board. Mottram et al. [9] proposed a
measurement of the acceleration for the dairy cattle. They
are give the mobility of the dairy cows and also acceleration
correlated to the mobility of the cows. Janzekovic et al. [10]
proposed a heart rate monitoring method based on polar
sport tester (PST) for cattle. The body temperature and heart
rate parameters are also used as a disease scrutinize for
different animal. Wietrzyk and Radenkovic et al. [11]–[13]
define the ad-hoc wireless sensor network based cattle health
monitoring and concluded that by using measured data, the
livestock farmers can prevent the spread of diseases. Analysis
of measured data also related decreased productivity and
death of valuable stock. Hopster et al. [14] proposed the two
stress measurement techniques for dairy cows. The proposed
techniques based on polar spot tester (PST) and electrocardio-
graph (ECG). They are also given the results of corresponding
study. They found that PST is a suitable technique for the
heart rate measurement of animal and also analyze the heart
rate is relevant parameter for the animal behavioral study.
Guo et al. [15] proposed a wireless sensor networks based live-
stock monitoring and control method. The proposed method
is also suitable for easily classifying animal activates and
behaviour. It is used the Fleck2 processor board and measured
the four parameters such as GPS information, accelerometer,
magnetometer, and temperature. Nadimi et al. [16]–[18] pro-
posed ad-hoc wireless sensor networks based monitoring and
classifying animal behavior. They used the 2.4 GHz frequency
based communication module and the proposed design is
the following advantages such as communication consistency,
energy efficient and minimum packet loss rate. The multi-
hop communication and handshaking protocol are used in the
development of the system. The measured behavioral parame-
ters are transformed into the corresponding behavioral modes
using a multilayer perception (MLP) based artificial neural
network (ANN). The ANN performance is achieved well in
the terms of mean squared error and ANN also trained the
algorithms such as Nguyen Widrow and Levenberg-Marquardt
back propagation. Huircan et al. [19] proposed a zigbee based
cattle monitoring in cropping fields and used the localization
scheme in wireless sensor network. The ratio-metric vector
1530-437X © 2014 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
KUMAR AND HANCKE: ZIGBEE-BASED AHMS 611
iteration algorithm is implemented and modifies the work
with localization measurements instead of the usual (RSSI)
received signal strength indication. Handcock et al. [20] pro-
posed a wireless sensor network, GPS collars and satellite
based animal behavior monitoring and also proposed the
environmental impact. They are combined the ground based
sensors and sensed satellite images for realize the animal
landscape interactions. Allen et al. [21] propose the heat
stress versus cow behavior and also define the behaviour is a
valuable parameter for the milk production. Lovett et al. [22]
proposed an infrared thermography measurement technique
for cattle. The proposed technique is helpful for examine the
cattle foot and mouth disease. Stewart et al. [23] defined
an infrared thermography based indirect stress measurement
of dairy cows. Krishnamurthi et al. [24] X-Ray computed
tomography based imaging for small animals and they are
study of physiologic measurement reproducibility. With all
these advancement in research the real-world application of the
proposed system has not been done yet. There is no product in
the market for the real time animal health monitoring. Mostly
veterinary staff checks the physiological parameters through
manually. Currently livestock farmer’s faces lot of problem on
monitoring the health of livestock and thus modifications are
being persistently recommended in instrumentation. Mostly
available system focuses only on heart rate measurement
to predict of the animals. Literature review reveals that the
wearable systems for real time animal health monitoring
are a key technology in helping of the veterinary staff and
measuring parameters can provide very accurate information
of the animal health. In behalf of this the livestock health care
would be inexpensive.
In this paper, we have reported a novel design goal of the
animal health monitoring system with a capability to monitor
heart rate, body temperature, and rumination with surrounding
temperature and humidity according to the IEEE802.15.4,
IEEE1451.2, and IEEE1451.1 standards. It has a variety of
features such as high speed, energy efficient, miniaturization,
intelligence, new materials at lower cost, portability, and high
performance.
II. SYSTEM OVERVIEW
Fig. 1 depicts the block diagram of the animal health
monitoring (AHM) system. The AHM system has been devel-
oped according to the IEEE1451 and IEEE802.15.4 standards.
The developed AHM system can be used of detecting the
animal physiological parameters such as rumination, heart
rate, and body temperature with the environmental parame-
ters (surrounding temperature and humidity). The surrounding
temperature and relative humidity based real time calculation
of temperature humidity index (THI) and also has been classify
the stress level of the animal. The output signal of the
developed sensor modules are sent to a host computer through
zigbee module. The values of body temperature, surrounding
humidity, surrounding temperature, rumination, heart rate,
stress level, and TH index (THI) can be displayed on the
GUI PC. The design of AHM system is an autonomous device,
if you need the monitoring of other health parameter which
makes it comparatively easy to add extra sensor modules.
Fig. 1. Block diagram of animal health monitoring system.
III. SENSING MODULE
The sensing unit is the main components of the developed
animal health monitoring (AHM) system. The sensing unit is
consisting of sensor, processor, and zigbee module [25]–[28].
In this paper, we have used the four sensors such as rumination
sensor, heart rate sensor, temperature sensor, and humidity
sensor. Because, these measured parameter have been used for
different animal species health judgment, as we can point out
a quandary of the animal [23]. The analog output of sensors
is fed to the inbuilt ADC of the microcontroller. The details
design of the sensors module is subsequently.
A. Temperature Sensor Module
Domestic animals have a core body temperature (CBT)
range in which metabolism functions without modification,
termed the thermo-neutral zone. Typically, core body tem-
perature is higher than ambient temperature to ensure that
heat generated by metabolism flows out to the environment.
Deviation outside of this range which is relatively narrow
leads to increases in resting metabolism, modifications to the
biochemistry and cellular physiology as well as the behaviour
of the animal. A healthy adult cow body temperature range
is approximately 38.5°C (101.5°F) to 39.5°C (103°F) and
if the cow body temperature is over that this range then
can called the cow is not healthy [21]. According to the
South African weather service, the daily extreme temperatures
recorded across South Africa to date has been 33.7°C with
the lowest being 4.8°C [29]. Therefore, with allowances taken
into consideration, the good range to select for our ambi-
ent temperature monitoring application is −15° to +40°C.
We have chosen the temperature sensor for this application was
a thermistor (TTC05102). Thermistor is high sensitive resistor
versus temperature (R Vs temperature). It means that the
most important function is to reveal a change in electrical
resistance with a change in its temperature. An important
characteristic of thermistor is their extreme sensitivity to
relatively minute temperature changes. The resistance of an
NTC (negative temperature coefficient) thermistor decreases
as its temperature increases [30]. They have a fast response,
small mass, less complex circuitry and lower cost than the
612 IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 15, NO. 1, JANUARY 2015
Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of temperature sensor module.
various other types of temperature sensors. The advantage and
disadvantage of the temperature sensor was reported in [30].
The schematic diagram of the thermistor sensor is shown
in Fig. 2. The signal processing circuit of the thermistor is
divided into two parts such as voltage divider and a voltage
follower. We have chosen the OP07 in the voltage follower cir-
cuit with the gain is three. The voltage divider network is main
dependent on series resister RSand reference voltage VREF.
In this circuit, the combination of R1and C1is formed a
low pass filter and remove it’s the noise. RSwas selected
according to eqn1. The developed thermistor sensor module
range was fixed at −15°C to +45°C therefore the thermistor
resistance value (RT), for three reference temperature were
obtained [30], [31] such as the lower point (RT1 =6.5K), mid
point (RT2 =3K), and upper point (RT3 =0.450K).
RS=RT1RT2+RT2RT3−2RT1RT3
RT1+RT3−2RT2(1)
Where RT1 =thermistor resistance at the lower limit;
RT2 =thermistor resistance at the mid limit; RT3 =thermistor
resistance at the upper limit.
VOUT =RT
RS+RTVREF (2)
The calculation of temperature is used the Steinhart-Hart
equation. The Steinhart-Hart equation is
1
TI=1.5×10−3+0.268 ×10−3(ln RT)
+3.558 ×10−8(ln RT)3(3)
TI(°C)=TI−273.15 (4)
Where Vout =output voltage of the thermistor sensor;
RT=resistance of the thermistor; RS=series resistor in
the voltage divider circuit; VREF =Reference voltage of the
voltage divider circuit; TI=Body temperature in K; T =Body
temperature in °C.
B. Humidity Sensor Module
The environmental parameters are affected the performance
and health of the animal both directly and indirectly. The
environmental factor consists of air temperature, air move-
ment, humidity, and radiation heat. In this paper, we have con-
centrated only on the environment temperature and humidity.
Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of the humidity sensor module.
Fig. 4. Data receiving structure of humidity sensor.
Based on these parameters, we have calculated the thermal
humidity index (THI) and also analyze the stress level of the
animal. To sense the humidity of the surrounding area is used
the DHT11 sensor. An overview of the DHT11 specification,
advantage and disadvantage were reported in [32]. The circuit
connection between the DHT11 sensor and the microprocessor
can be seen in Fig. 3. The sensor data are received in the
form of five segments (8 bit each). The first tow segments are
represents the humidity (integral and decimal), third and fourth
segments are represents the temperature in °C, and remaining
(last) segments is the check sum. The last segment is the sum
of the four first segments, if check sum value is not equal to the
sum of four first segments that means that the received data is
not correct. The received data structure is shown in Fig. 4.
The operating voltage of the developed module is fixed
at 3.3V. The surrounding humidity and temperature sensing
range of the developed module are set from 20% to 90% and
0oC-50°C, respectively.
C. Heart Rate Sensor Module
The heart rate is the most important parameter in the health
assessment. The adult healthy cow has a heart rate between
48 and 84 beats per minute. The variation in heart rate
normally reflects the stress, anticipation, movement, exertion,
and various diseases. Basically, the heart rate measurement is
an indirect method.
Some researchers are used the polar spot tester (PST) for
the measurement of heart rate and were reported in [33]–[38].
According to this we have choose the polar equine T56H
transmitter device for the cattle heart rate measurement. The
polar equine transmitter T56H is a fabric electrode based heart
monitoring device. The heart rate sensor module is shown
in Fig. 5.
The electrodes made from conductive flexible fibre are
which acclimatize absolutely to the heart beat. The ergonom-
ically design of this device is comfortable for animals.
KUMAR AND HANCKE: ZIGBEE-BASED AHMS 613
Fig. 5. Polar equine heart rate sensor module.
Fig. 6. The heart rate sensor output.
The fibres electrodes include a permeable to ensure a stable
contact with the skin and pledge the essential dampness
for communicates the heart rate signal. The transmitter
T56H picks up very small electrical impulses emitted by the
heart and for the T56H transmitter to read the heart rate
properly. The transmitter T56H was supported at 2.4GHz
frequency. The transmitter sends the real time data to the host
computer. The heart rate sensor output window is shown in
Fig. 6. During experiment, we have receive the heart rate of
the dairy cows is approximately 75 beats per minute.
D. Rumination Sensor Module
Rumination is a direct indicator of animal wellbeing and
health and also important part of the process by which
animal digest food. The minimum ruminants are shown the
Q fever [39]. According to veterinarians, the rumination is
a function of what the animal has eaten and how well
He/She has been able to rest. Normally, animals spend about
one third of a day (9-10hours) in ruminating. The changes
of rumination are indicating the disease such as mastitis,
metabolic calving disease, food digestion, etc. Furthermore the
return of rumination is an excellent sign of treatment success.
The rumination monitoring of the animals is a need of the
veterinarians because the rumination monitoring can provide
a very accurate indication of the animal’s health [40]–[43].
In the rumination monitoring we have used the accelero-
meter. The rumination sensor module has been developed
according to IEEE802.15.4 and IEEE1451.2 standards for
provides the three axis response of the animals. The block
diagram and photograph of the developed rumination sensor
module are shown in Figs. 7 and 8, respectively.
Fig. 7. Block diagram of rumination sensor module.
Fig. 8. Photograph of the rumination sensor module.
In the development of rumination sensor were used the
ADXL335 accelerometer. Basically ADXL335 is a energy
efficient, compact, and inexpensive device and can be mea-
sures the 3-axis acceleration with a range of ±3g. In the
addition the ADXL335 output signals are analog voltage that
is proportional to the acceleration. The advantage, disad-
vantage, and specification were reported in [44]–[46]. And
also can work in the static and dynamic measurement of
the acceleration, basically, it is depends on the applications
such as vibration, motion, shock, etc. In this paper, we have
used the monitoring of mouth movement for the rumination
time of the animals and it is fixed of the left hand side of
the mouth.
The operating voltage range of the ADXL335 mod-
ule is 1.8V-3.6V and it is operated at a fixed voltage
of 3.3V. At the 3.3V, the maximum output voltage of
the accelerometer are −560mV for the X-axis, +560V for
the Y-axis, and +960mV for the Z-axis. The capacitors
CX=CY=CZ=0.1μF have been connected to the output
signals XOUT,Y
OUT,andZ
OUT of the accelerometer, respec-
tively. The 0.1μF has been removed to the low frequency noise
otherwise create the errors in the measurement of acceleration.
The PIC18F4550 microcontroller interfaced to accelerometer
with zigbee module. The outcome are sent through the zigbee
module to a graphical user interface running of the host
computer and also save the real time data into the access data
base of the host computer. The developed ruminant sensor
output signals are display on GUI in the form of waveform.
The ruminant sensor output is shown in Fig. 9. If the sensor
output signals are up and down corresponding to the x, y, and
z directions. It means that the animal is doing ruminant and
614 IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 15, NO. 1, JANUARY 2015
Fig. 9. The rumination sensor 3-axis output.
that the animal is well being otherwise the animal is in poor
health. This results has been received during cow is resting of
afternoon time.
IV. WIRELESS COMMUNICATION
In the development of animal health monitoring sys-
tem (AHMS) has been used the zigbee communication. The
zigbee device is an energy efficient, high accuracy, self-
configuring, low cost, communication technology [47], [48].
Zigbee communication has well-known applications such as
environment monitoring, viginet (military), smart farms, smart
building, telemedicine services, and other industrial appli-
cations [49]–[56]. Recently, animal telemedicine is one hot
application in the area of wireless sensor network. The com-
munication between the sensor module and sink module is
performed from side to side a zigbee module. In this paper,
we have chosen the XBee-PRO S2 module. The specifications,
working modes, advantages, and disadvantages were reported
in [47]. The zigbee module working on the 2.4 GHz band,
but is data transmits and receives serially through UART (uni-
versal asynchronous receiver transmitter). They also serially
data transfer between zigbee coordinator and graphical user
interface PC. We have configured the zigbee module through
X-CTU software. In our system networks, the four sensor
modules data converse to the single sink module which is
coupled to a PC. The private area network ID is same of
the developed sensor and sink modules. If the working of the
setup is correct, the automatic establish the network connection
between the sensor modules and sink node. Every sensor sends
their data every 4 s to the coordinator and we have used the
unlicensed 2.4GHz frequency band.
V. SINK MODULE
The sink module is used to collect data from different sensor
modules. The developed sink module is consists of zigbee
coordinator and graphical user interface running on PC. The
transceiver unit is the main device of the zigbee coordinator
and the transceiver unit is serially interfaced to the micro-
controller. The microcontroller is serially interfaced to the PC
through USB. The serial data converses depend on the UART.
The sink module is shown in Fig. 10.
Fig. 10. Block diagram of sink node.
Fig. 11. The front panel of the AHM system.
A. Graphical User Interface (GUI)
The LabVIEW 9.0 was used to the development of graph-
ical user interface. The graphical user interface program is
running on PC and to communicate with the zigbee coor-
dinator [48], [57]. The graphical user interface two main
sub program, one is block diagram and other is front panel.
In the development of AHM system, we have used the
communication between GUI PC and Zigbee coordinator
through USB and follow the IEEE 1451.7 standard. The
USB based interfaced have the following advantages such
as cost, reliability, energy efficient, hot pluggable, etc. The
main advantage of the USB based interface, the USB support
the 100mA at 5V for external used and according to this
there is a sufficient power of the zigbee coordinator. The
USB based advantages, disadvantages, and protocol were
reported in [58]. In this paper, we have used the interrupt
driven transfer protocol. In the LabVIEW based instrumen-
tation, the I/O communication software is needed and we
have used the VISA communication software. The detailed
information of the communication software as well as VISA
sub palette, advantages, and drawback were reported in [59].
The front panel of the developed AHM system is shown
in Fig. 11.
KUMAR AND HANCKE: ZIGBEE-BASED AHMS 615
TAB L E I
ANIMAL STRESS VERSUS THINDEX [61]
Fig. 12. THI and heat stress output.
VI. HEAT STRESS INDICATOR
Heat stress is an adverse effect on animal health such as
reduces the milk production, weight gain, feed intake, repro-
ductive efficiency, and increasing susceptibility to disease.
The measurement of heat stress is a non-invasive method
and can be calculated through thermal humidity index (THI).
The calculation of THI is the real time monitors of the animal
surrounding environmental parameters such as temperature
and relative humidity. In the calculation of THI, we have used
the equation 5 [60].
THI =(1.8×T+32)
−[(0.55 −0.0055 ×RH)×(1.8×T−26.8)](5)
Where T is the surrounding temperature in °C and RH is the
surrounding relative humidity in %.
The principle of THI is that as the relative humidity at
any temperature increases, it becomes progressively more
difficult for the animal to cool itself [61]. If the THI value is
greater than 70 then animal feel uncomfortable [19]. Table I
represents the THI versus heat stress. If increased the value of
TH index then change the behaviour of animals and has been
increased the irregularity. Fig. 12 shows that the TH index and
stress level of the animal during experiment.
VII. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The main aim of this research paper is to develop an
animal health monitoring system (AHMS) which is capable
to the measuring of body temperature, rumination, and heart
rate parameters with environmental parameters (surrounding
Fig. 13. Experimental setup of heart rate, body temperature, and surrounding
temperature and humidity.
Fig. 14. Experimental setup of rumination sensor module.
temperature and humidity). The system is based on the
IEEE 1451.2, IEEE 802.15.4, and IEEE1451.1 standards.
The PIC18F4550 microcontroller and XBee-PRO S2 mod-
ule were used to the development of AHM system. The
four sensor module such as body temperature, heart rate,
surrounding humidity and temperature, and rumination has
been successfully developed. They measuring parameters will
be helpful to analyze the animal disease or health condition
of the animal.
We have designed the LabVIEW 9.0 based front panel.
The front panel of the AHM system handles functions of
the measuring parameters such as settings the time interval,
start button (ON), OFF, data saves for the access memory
of the PC or in the data base, and a digital and a graphical
output. Here the developed GUI module can perform for four
sensing module and display the seven valuable physiologi-
cal and behavioral parameters. The USB slot of the PC is
present the 100mA at 5V and it does not require any external
power source in the sink module during the experiments. The
power consumptions in the AHM system is depend only on
the wireless sensing modules. During experiment, the 11.1V
battery (rated 350mAh) is used. The each sensor module
could be run incessantly for 60 hours without necessitate
recharge. The prototype setup with dairy cow is shown in
Figs. 13 and 14. The system has been developed ergonomically
with the reference of the animal, the veterinary staff and
primary user of the device. The following points are fallowed
by the designing of the system in terms of the reduction
of environmental factors, such as, the module is protective
616 IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 15, NO. 1, JANUARY 2015
covering of PVC (Polyvinyl chloride) to shield it from rain
and insects as well as the design of the casing for the collar
to be threaded through, minimum noise is achieved in the
case of the developed multilayer circuit board which includes
a ground plane, and sensor and its associated circuitry are
connected through wires with grounding connection.
VIII. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have presented a prototype of an animal
health monitoring system. The prototype system consists of the
sensor module and sink module. These modules were abun-
dantly urbanized according to the IEEE1451.2, IEEE802.15.4
and IEEE1451.1 standards.
This prototype system is tested for the real time monitor-
ing of physiological parameters such as body temperature,
rumination, and heart rate as well as monitor the surrounding
humidity, and temperature. And based on these environmental
parameters are automatic analyze the TH index (THI) and
stress level. In the development of sensing device, we have
used the low power electronic components to minimize the
power consumption and the device could be run continually
maximum times. The developed sensor module is low power
consumption, miniaturization, intelligence, easy to operate,
new materials at lower cost, portability, and high performance.
The major cost of the developed system is comes form the use
of zigbee modules and T56H transmitter.
For future study, the exploration of ultra wide band (UWB)
radio based wireless sensor network for animal health moni-
toring. It will be specifically targets health monitoring during
races, animal location and tracking applications. This tech-
nology presents very high low power consumption, low com-
plexity, and time domain resolution. In the heart rate sensing
module we have used the T56H transmitter and the developed
module has been transmitting data only upto 5 meters. They
will need the modification of the heart rate sensor module and
could be increased the transmission range. The design and
development of the PCB will be focus on the flexible PCB’s
to reinstate the rigid card, so that it might be ergonomically
beneficially for animal.
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Anuj Kumar received the Ph.D. degree in
embedded systems from the Indian Institute of
Technology (IIT) Delhi, New Delhi, India, in
2011, the M.Tech. degree in instrumentation from
the National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra,
Haryana, India, in 2004, and the M.Phil. degree in
instrumentation from IIT Roorkee, Roorkee, India,
in 2000.
He was with APL Intelligent Embedded, New
Delhi, from 2000 to 2002, where he was involved
in the development of microcontroller-based applica-
tions. In 2004, he joined DellSoft Technologies, New Delhi, as an Instrumen-
tation Engineer. He was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Department
of Electrical and Computers Engineering, University of Seoul, Seoul, Korea,
in 2012. Since 2012, he has been a Vice-Chancellor’s Post-Doctoral Fellow
with the Department of Electrical, Electronic, and Computer Engineering,
University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa. His research interests include
smart sensing systems, intelligent systems, microcontroller-based applications,
and instrumentation electronics.
Gerhard P. Hancke (SM’11) received the B.Eng.
and M.Eng. degrees from the University of Preto-
ria, Pretoria, South Africa, and the Ph.D. degree
in computer science from the University of Cam-
bridge, Cambridge, U.K., in 2008. He is an Assistant
Professor with the Department of Computer Science,
City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. He is
interested in sensing systems for industrial applica-
tions.
