International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and

Science (IJAERS)
Peer-Reviewed Journal
ISSN: 2349-6495(P) | 2456-1908(O)
Vol-8, Issue-10; Oct, 2021
Journal Home Page Available: https://ijaers.com/
Article DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijaers.810.23

Conceptual model of IoT architecture for poultry farming

Lucas José de Souza1, Marcio Rodrigo Santos2, Egon Walter Wildauer3

1Programade Pós-Graduação em Gestão da Informação, Universidade Federal do Paraná.

2Departamento de Informática, Campus Colombo, Instituto Federal do Paraná.
3Departamento de Ciência e Gestão da Informação (DECIGI), Universidade Federal do Paraná

Received: 14 Sep 2021, Abstract— The data connection between machines and people is one of
Received in revised form: 10 Oct 2021, the pillars of Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things, boosting productivity
in healthcare, manufacturing, logistics and smart cities. However, in the
Accepted: 20 Oct 2021,
case of agribusiness, projections indicate a lower diffusion of these
Available online: 25 Oct 2021 technologies, mainly due to the difficulty of their access by rural
©2021 The Author(s). Published by AI producers, especially in cases of smaller scale production. For rural
Publication. This is an open access article producers who have access to this type of technology, there may be a
under the CC BY license difficulty in the usability of existing IoT applications, that is, users in the
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). rural context may not feel familiar with the available graphical interfaces
and end up not using the applications. This work aims to propose a data
Keywords— Internet of Things, Poultry
management architecture based on the IoT paradigm for small producers
Farming, User experience.
in the poultry sector, presenting a mapping of needs and priorities among
stakeholders. As a result, an IoT architecture model in three layers was
proposed, being the physical layer, the software layer and the data
analytic layer. It is concluded that with the use of this tool, small
producers will be able to make better decisions, identify poor performance
and act quickly, economically, simply and ergonomically in meeting the
requirements of international competitiveness, when compared to other
producers in the same region.

I. INTRODUCTION kind of automation and real-time control in their aviaries

Digital transformation is important for the performance [1][2]. Paraná, the largest poultry producer in Brazil
of the agribusiness production chain as a whole, however, (33.4% of the national total), has about 921 aviaries (6% of
in Brazil, these evolution of industry 4.0 lead to a process the total slaughterhouses) with some type of automation
of social selectivity [1]; the growing complexity of rural [1].
management, coupled with the difficulty that most small Technologies used in smart agriculture include low-
producers have in appropriating adequate technological cost hardware devices, sensors and actuators that, when
knowledge, and the condition of implementing a digital installed in specific locations, monitor and act in
architecture in their properties is causing some small rural accordance with the objectives defined by the business
producers to give up on maintaining themselves in their rule, supporting their decision-making and providing
traditional production activities and migrate to the greater efficiency in management [2]. However, there are
production of commodities aimed at the foreign market. still barriers in the implementation of IoT systems aimed at
Brazil is the third largest poultry producer in the world rural activities, whether due to the costs of implementation
(10.90% of world production in 2020), behind only China and maintenance or the lack of local infrastructure such as,
(16.94%) and the United States (17.15%), it is estimated for example, internet access, resistance on the part of
that less than 1% of 180 thousand producers have some producers and even difficulties in obtaining of credit lines

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destined for these projects. Another obstacle, which on-site worker, thanks to the intelligent automation of rural
touches the adhesion of technological solutions, is the lack data collection and monitoring.
of identification of the user with the existing applications Pragmatically, “agriculture 4.0 is a set of innovations
[3][4][5]. What happens is a large number of applications aimed at advanced technology, which aims to improve,
with non-useful or non-intuitive resources, which lead to optimize and monetize productivity in the field” [10]. The
discouragement [5]. In this context, user experience demand for optimization in the use of natural resources
elements became relevant for the development of and inputs made farms migrate from agriculture 3.0 to
applications, understanding their audience and their agriculture 4.0, that is, it began to be monitored and
demands, not only meeting the business rules [6][7]. massively automated. One of the first adaptations is the
In this context, this research aims to propose a low cost dissemination of sensors dispersed throughout the property
and open source IoT data management architecture model and interconnected to the Internet, generating data in large
for small producers in the broiler production chain, volumes that need to be stored, processed, analyzed and
considering the user experience and usability aspects. made available for decision-making in rural areas [11].

II. AGRIBUSINESS 4.0 III. POULTRY FARMING

The evolution of agriculture and livestock is closely Activities related to the process of production and
linked to industrial revolutions. In a historical context prior marketing of agro-industrial products are named according
to the first industrial revolution, all rural work needed the to the perspective used. The term production chain or agro-
support offered by animals for the strength and traction of industrial production chain defines activities based on a
implements such as the plow. Around the 18th century, particular final product [12]. Among the various activities
with the first industrial revolution in progress, it was in poultry production, the highlight is the fattening of
possible to give more flexibility to some manual and craft poultry for slaughter, especially broilers; therefore, this
tasks with the use of steam engines [8]. research includes the chicken production chain that falls
Only in the 19th century, with the second industrial under the poultry category, which also includes the
revolution, it was possible to mechanize agricultural production of fertilizers, eggs and other chickens [12][13].
activity by replacing animal-drawn machines with The historical panorama of the broiler production chain
combustion engines. It is noteworthy that fertilizer and begins in the mid-1950s, when poultry farming was
crop protection biotechnologies and their spraying basically a subsistence activity. Poultry farmers and
methods could also be boosted [9][10]. The 20th century agribusinesses started the integration process, which
witnessed the third industrial revolution, accompanied by sought to improve the process from breeding to slaughter
information and communication technologies, with [12][14]. With this, agribusiness was able to schedule its
software capable of optimizing field management and annual production, obtain greater use of facilities and
allowing more accurate measurements of productivity, in reduce costs [13][14].
addition to process automation [10][11], also known as Later, in the 70s, the agricultural sector underwent a
agriculture of precision. Precision agriculture is the process of modernization introduced in the technical bases
predecessor of digital agriculture (Agriculture 4.0) and is of production and production processes. During this
mainly characterized by the use of machines and period, the poultry agroindustry stood out as a modern
technologies. segment, which invested in the activity and established
This new agriculture, until then, was characterized by partnerships with foreign genetic improvement companies
making available a series of resources that involved [12].
biotechnology, corrective fertilization, pesticides, However, it was from the 1990s that the chicken meat
management techniques, GPS and increasingly modern production chain gained greater visibility in the Brazilian
and automated agricultural machines [8]. In summary, it is and world agribusiness scenario, thanks to the diversity of
possible for the farmer to control the harvest through technological resources and effective management [14]. In
information and treat each area as unique, recognizing the the 2000s, the strong growth of Brazilian production was
differences in each region. The fourth industrial revolution noticeable due to the improvement of processes and the
[9] was also characterized by hyperconnectivity between sanitary quality of the herds and also to the significant
those involved in the real-time agribusiness production improvement in the income of the Brazilian population,
chain, known as Agribusiness 4.0; this new scenario makes which brought a significant growth in domestic
it possible to be present in the field without the need for an consumption [13][14] and led to the conquest of the
foreign market.

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IV. INTERNET OF THINGS the architecture differed among the projects, resulting in
The concept of the Internet of Things is related to a more or less different architectures, composed of a series
physical entity of individual interest (thing) - an object of components and protocols. Also, according to the
such as a bicycle, an industrial machine, an air conditioner author, this resulted in limited interoperability between
in a room, security cameras triggered by motion detection, systems, which also hampered discussions between
lamps with control of lighting, etc. [15]. Depending on the domains. A survey by [23] indicated that the opinion of the
nature of the "thing" (device), different technologies are IoT community is that IoT reference models are needed
used to connect them to the internet, such as identification and the main goals of a common model are to enable
devices (RFID, tags or barcodes), monitoring devices such interoperability between solutions, promote common
as sensors (temperature and other sensors, cameras in understanding of IoT and facilitate integration with other
vehicles, door locks or window openings) and actuators. systems. The most important components of an IoT
According to [15][16][17], the IoT consists of a global reference model are terminology, interface, interaction
network of billions of uniquely identifiable (and model, standards, communication model and information
addressable) objects, embedded with sensors, actuators and security models.
controllers) and these are wirelessly connected to the
Internet. The International Telecommunications Union V. USER EXPERIENCE
determines the IoT as a dynamic global network
The concept of User eXperience (UX) can be
infrastructure that can self-configure using interoperable
commonly understood as subjective and context-dependent
standards and protocols where things (physical and virtual)
[24][25], UX is defined as "The perceptions and responses
have identities, attributes and personalities, use intelligent
of a person that result from the use of a product, system or
interfaces and can integrate seamlessly with the network
service". With the development of new technologies, users
[16][17]. IoT technologies are classified into three types: i)
not only seek to perform a task, but also to have fun [26].
Detection and data collection technologies: they are
responsible for detecting and collecting information about Usability from an interface design point of view is
the physical environment (such as temperature, humidity not enough to define the quality of a software and obtain
or light sensors) or about objects (identity, status, energy user acceptance [25]. The product can be useful in
level). ii) Data communication technologies: configure the technical matters, but unpleasant and not acceptable by
way data transmission occurs in a given application. They most users [26]. It is in this context that UX and usability
can be classified into two main categories: wired or fit, covering details about the interactions between users
wireless. Wired technologies require an adequate physical and the product, from the perception of how the product
infrastructure to run cables, which can be expensive and works and whether their goals, needs and expectations are
unfeasible in some cases. Wireless technologies require met in any context in which they use the product [27].
fewer physical hardware connections, making it easier to According to [25], UX is focused on meeting human needs
deploy in hard-to-reach locations or scarce electrical beyond the instrumental, that is, beyond task-oriented
resources. Wireless communication means include wi-fi, aspects, to enrich product quality and create a holistic
Bluetooth and mobile data communication. iii) Data interaction [28][29]. Garrett's method for designing digital
storage and analytics technologies: these encompass IoT products that enhance the user experience requires
applications, data analytics and management, and elements that must be taken into account.
application platforms. In general, it can be said that IoT In the site objectives and user needs layer are
applications are running software that coordinates the business goals, creative goals, or other goals that originate
interaction between people, systems and devices in the internally for the site, along with the strategy of meeting
context of a certain purpose [15][16][17]. the user's needs. The second layer: content requirements
Over the years, several projects related to the Internet and functional specifications, requires the definition of the
of Things (IoT) have specified their own architectural content elements needed by the website to meet the user's
versions, based on the specific requirements that the needs, as well as the detailed set of functionalities that the
projects were addressing [18][19][20]. Depending on the application must contain to meet the users' needs [28].
project scope or problem domain to be addressed, Information design is the presentation of information to
architectures were focusing on different aspects or on a facilitate understanding. Information architecture, on the
subdomain of the IoT without a consolidated and always other hand, refers to the structure of information on the
adaptable architecture [21]. According to [22], due to a screen to facilitate intuitive access to content. The
great heterogeneity of application domains and, information design refers to how the information will
consequently, of requirements, the approaches to specify behave on the screen in order to facilitate the user's

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understanding, in this element are the navigation design: the most relevant for increasing the productivity and
interface elements to facilitate the user's movement profitability of the producer [10][12][15][16].
through the information architecture [29]. The interface To identify technological gaps, the researcher
design aims to facilitate user interaction with system addressed the questions about which information
functionalities. Finally, visual design refers to the visual technologies have access. Immediately, respondents
treatment of text, GUI elements and navigation responded that they have an application developed by the
components [27][28]. cooperative to request feed and other inputs for
production; through the application it is possible to
VI. METHODOLOGY estimate the cost of raw material and check your purchase
history; they also have access to the daily quote for
The research is exploratory and qualitative in nature,
chicken, corn and soy through the app and can consult the
and the procedures to meet the research objective are
weather forecast [10][12].
described below: Data collection through interviews with
stakeholders in the poultry production chain. The data Asked which IoT technologies exist for real-time
analysis step used the “Needs Matrix” to rank stakeholder management of handling processes, the poultry farmers
needs and priorities for an efficient IoT architecture. mentioned that they are services offered by outsourced
Finally, the conceptual model of the proposal is presented, companies, but none of them contracted the services and
meeting the requirements identified in the interviews and the mentioned impediment was the high cost of
contemplating the technologies for the development of IoT implementation; one respondent mentions that he does not
applications. feel the need, as his production is small and his family is
able to manage, but he stressed that he is interested in
modernizing his farm, thinking of expanding production in
VII. MAPPING PRIORITIES AND NEEDS the future [11][8]. Although none of the producers
The information was collected through interviews with interviewed have a system in place, two of them
four poultry farmers, a poultry slaughtering agroindustry mentioned the name of two companies that provide this
manager, a cooperative coordinator and a municipal server type of service and claim to know neighboring producers
from the Agriculture and Environment department, who contracted this technology.
totaling seven respondents. As for the issues of the
relationship between producers and agribusiness,
VIII. IoT CONCEPTUAL PROPOSAL
respondents mention that they receive advice from
agricultural technicians, veterinarians and zoo technicians For the modeling, the layered model was adopted,
with information about birds, diseases, feed, animal since for the context of the broiler production chain the
welfare and other technical information on production layered IoT architecture is appropriate because users
[13]. already have their financial/accounting control systems,
and the purpose of the architecture it is not to overwrite
Respondents mention that the partnership with
existing systems [16][17], but to include in the production
agribusiness, also known as integration, takes place
routine another application to support in-situ production
through the provision of services, agribusinesses provide
control. Furthermore, with the layered architecture, it is
chickens with up to three days of life to poultry farmers,
possible to update technologies or electronic components
who provide their labor and physical space (farm) for the
from the physical layer, keeping the interfaces (back-end
carrying out the growth and fattening work. The complete
and front-end), as the communication and service modules
cycle takes 45 to 50 days. For remuneration, the elements
do not need to be changed. The architecture contains five
listed by respondents were: mortality rate, feed conversion
layers: physical layer, communication layer, collection,
rate, occurrence of diseases and inspection after slaughter,
treatment and storage layer, services layer, and visual
which calculates the average size and weight of chickens
layer. In addition to these five vertical layers, the proposal
per batch [15]. Thus, the remuneration for the producer, in
also includes three horizontal layers parallel to the vertical,
this partnership, depends on the good management of the
namely: data quality, interoperability and security. The
aviary [13] [14].
objectives and elements present in each layer are discussed
These elements of remuneration are directly related to below [18].
practical issues of production and management, being the
greatest opportunity for the implementation of IoT devices,
since the growth and fattening phases of the chickens are

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Fig. 1: IoT proposal Architecture

Physical Layer: The physical layer is the first the IoT architecture. This layer is responsible for making
(architectural basis), its objective is the physical presence data and information available to system stakeholders
of the Data Logger on the farm, it is the hardware that through web and mobile platforms. It is also in the visual
provides the data sources (sensors). Through the internet it layer that the application requests information from data
is possible to establish communication between the previously stored and processed in the application's routes,
physical layer with the others (ensuring the interoperability in order to provide graphics and indicators of what is
of the system); the importance of sensor calibration is happening in real time on the farm. Component
related to the vertical layer of “Data Quality”, that is, that responsible for facilitating data visualization and user
the data is reliable and valid to be persisted, processed and decision-making: the data analysis module, on the web
visualized in the following layers; security, on the other layer, also provides a control panel using the Shiny library
hand, concerns the guarantee that the data sent by the of Software R, with statistical methods that aid in mapping
microcontroller to the server is not maliciously injected by production behavior and also generate forecast of the
external sources. Hardware is uniquely identified; given future behavior of poultry production.
the large number of "things" that can be interconnected, a
unique identifier will allow you to track/monitor each item
IX. CONCLUSION
in the physical environment, ensuring accuracy in the
management process, preventing a user's hardware from This research, which proposes an architecture based on
being identified as belonging to another user. Services IoT, is able to guide and support the management of small
layer: The services layer is the one that allows users to broiler producers, placing them in the context of
communicate between the server and the actuators, via Agribusiness 4.0, in order to improve their decision-
WebSockets protocol, the connection between the Data making processes; identifying low performance and acting
Logger and the Server is established for actions without quickly, cheaply, simply and ergonomically, to meet the
the need for requests from the client. Visual layer: can be requirements of international competitiveness compared to
considered the layer closest to the users who make use of large producers in the same region. Although there are

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