Rial’s main project focuses on developing a virtual fence system for low- and middle-income countries. The core of the system is a small ear tag with a geolocation mechanism, behavioral sensors and a stimulus mechanism to control the location of animals within a virtually defined perimeter. The virtual fence team is headed by Mario Herrero, Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investigator in the Life Sciences, Global Development, and works in partnership with the Bezos Earth Fund.
Rial is collaborating with PhD student Hannah James ’27, mechanical engineering, to design the ear tag. “The size is the most challenging thing about this,” Rial said. “We know that virtual fences work, but everything we know is based on collars. No one has made a virtual fence as small as an ear tag. We want to create something low cost, so that people who cannot afford a collar can still afford an ear tag.”
“We know that virtual fences work, but everything we know is based on collars. No one has made a virtual fence as small as an ear tag."
The ear tag must have a certain shape and weight that is comfortable for the cow. “But then you have to fit all the electronics in there,” Rial said. “We have this struggle between what the cow can handle and what we can do with the electronics we have.”
Rial tests the device on cows, exploring whether it is sturdy enough to stand up to real-life on-farm situations and whether it is light enough to be comfortable for the cow. One of her main responsibilities is to work out what type of stimulus will cause the cows to stay away from restricted areas. In addition, the team also plans to incorporate an accelerometer, which will use a cow’s movements to predict her health and reproduction status.
The virtual fence could be a game changer in parts of the world where fencing is either too expensive for the average farmer or impossible to put up because of the landscape, Rial said. It also has the potential to make a difference in places like Africa, for instance, where wildlife need to move freely on migratory routes, yet livestock need to be controlled.
“One of the challenges for me is to think about this device being used in different environments,” said Rial. “My family has a dairy farm in Argentina, so I know about that environment. But to develop something that is going to be useful in another part of the world, you need to have some idea how people there work and live. Every time I come up with an idea, I think, ‘Yes, it could be good for the system I know, but how will it be for a farmer in a completely different area?’”
