Force based pain sensing in animals using stepping motor

Farming is a major industry in New Zealand and the welfare of the farmed animals should be of high importance. A system is required to estimate the pain felt by animals in various procedures such as docking and castration. To do this the system will be used in research to identify the applied force levels which cause pain. It can also be used to estimate the effectiveness of pain control drugs for animals and establish required doses. This paper presents a new pain sensing system based on the use of stepping motor for applying force and flexiforce sensor for measuring the applied force. The new sensing system is successfully built and tested.