Chapter 11 - Smart fence to protect farmland from stray animals

Abstract

Agriculture and animals are two crucial factors for ecological balance. Currently, the world is facing challenges, which includes both agriculture and animals. The challenge is to save farm produce from stray and wild animals. There are many areas where crops are destroyed either by wild animals, like elephants, deer, and blue buck, or by stray cattle. These animals destroy crops worth millions of dollars every year in different parts of the world. We need techniques to reduce this wastage without harming the animals. There are a lot of fencing and other techniques to stop this menace, but somehow there are no foolproof solutions. Most of the fencing techniques are harmful to animals. There are many cases in which animals die due to the fencing of the fields. According to a report, around 500 elephants, 220 flamingos, 150 leopards, and 46 tigers died due to electrocution from fencing during 2010–20 in India. This chapter introduces a virtual deterrent fence to solve these issues. As machine learning and artificial intelligence have become the backbone of every technology, agriculture can also benefit from them. A virtual fence is invisible to everyone because it is an optical fiber sensor cable which is laid 12-in. deep in the soil. Laser light will be used at the start of the fiber sensor cable, and a detector will detect at the end of the cable. The interferometric technique will be used to predict the changes in the pattern of laser light. The fiber cable sensors will be connected to a microcontroller, which can predict the intrusion of any animal. The machine learning algorithms developed for the identification of animals can classify the animal. The chapter will describe all the algorithms used for classification purposes. An actuator will work as a deterrent fence, which can generate drum sounds, lights, or any particular smell to drive back the animals. The actuator will work according to the classification of the animal. The chapter proposes an economical and feasible machine learning-based solution to save crops from animals and to save animals from dangerous fencing. The complete setup of optical fiber sensors, costing, methodology, and machine learning algorithms is covered in this chapter.