Robotic pills could monitor cow health internally

The prototype device is made from polymers and has six legs to allow it to manoeuvre internally between a cow’s four different stomach compartments. Sensors would report on the digestive health of the animal, with data relayed to a receiver worn around the cow’s neck. If applied across a herd of cattle and combined with software and artificial intelligence, the robotic pills could lead to better agricultural practices and efficiency gains, according to the researchers.

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“In crop agriculture, we don’t care about individual ears of corn or grains of wheat compared to an entire field,” said robotics research lead Richard Voyles, a professor of electrical engineering technology in the Purdue Polytechnic Institute. “But we care about individual cows or pigs. Each individual animal eats differently and gets sick differently.