Trustworthiness assessment of cow behaviour data collected in a wireless sensor network

Wireless sensor networks can be used for automated cow monitoring, e.g. for behaviour and locomotion monitoring. Sensor data should only be used when they can be trusted. The trustworthiness of sensor data can be assessed in a framework, from the acquisition at the node to their delivery to business applications, including any intermediary routing and processing. The trustworthiness assessment method has been evaluated with sensor data collected during one of the experiments within the WASP project. Sensor data are not trusted when the trustworthiness gets below a threshold. An alert is generated then and it is possible to find the cause by tracing back the trust of composing elements. The trustworthiness assessment method results in the detection of problems with nodes (e.g. detached node or exhausted battery). Most of these problems can be classified as true and most of them were not notified on the farm. Therefore trustworthiness assessment is worthwhile to improve automated cow status monitoring.