Seminar: John Gardenier, Sept 6th 2019

When: Thurs, Sept 12th 2019, 1p

Where: Rose St Building Seminar Area

Title: How now lame cow? Automatic lameness detection with 3D sensors

Abstract: Lameness in dairy cows is a prevalent health issue impacting both animal welfare and economic performance. Despite the economic and welfare cost of lameness, lameness prevalence has been shown to be severely underestimated. This is partially due to the time and expertise required to systematically recognise and score lame cows. This infrequent manual process often suffers from subjectivity and low consistency. Automatic lameness detection can potentially provide an objective, consistent lameness assessment at a higher temporal resolution, while better distinguishing lameness severity levels.

Bio: John Gardenier completed a BSc in 2010, and a MSc in 2014, both in Aerospace Engineering at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and specialising in control systems during his MSc. During internships at Nissan in Japan and at a research laboratory in San Diego John assisted in developing human-machine interfaces for drive-by-wire technology and driving simulators for medical diagnostics. In 2016, after working in the Netherlands in the fields of automation, robotics, and flight simulation, he commenced a PhD at the Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR) at The University of Sydney, Australia. John’s PhD thesis is a joint project between the ACFR and the University’s dairy research group with the aim of developing advanced perception for livestock agriculture, specifically automatic lameness detection in dairy cattle. This will utilise the latest advances in two of John’s key interests, machine vision and deep learning, in order to solve a real-world problem facing the dairy industry.