PONE-D-23-43870High-precision tracking and positioning drone for monitoring Holstein cattlesPLOS ONE

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Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments:

This paper introduces a UAV-based approach for multi-target tracking of cattle, demonstrating substantial improvements over traditional methods. The content is well-structured, featuring clear ideas and concise diagrams. However, the author is advised to enhance the paper's quality by providing a more detailed overview of existing research, outlining the strengths and weaknesses of other algorithms. Additionally, in the model design section, a more in-depth explanation of the rationale behind selecting optimization strategies and their application to other models is recommended. 

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

Reviewer #4: Partly

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: N/A

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: N/A

Reviewer #4: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: No

Reviewer #4: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The paper is well written. The conclusion section needs to be improved. It should give more insight inot tthe implications of the results and should not duel on summarising the work done.

There is little or no discussion on future work and future directions of the work done. What are the implications? Are there any insights the authors wish to share?

Reviewer #2: This paper presents a method for using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to achieve multi-target tracking of cattle. Compared with the traditional tracking methods, the performance of the model has been significantly improved in all aspects.

This article has clear ideas, compact structure and beautiful and concise diagrams. However, the author must consider the following suggestions to further improve the quality of his work.

1.In the description of the current state of research, the existing research status should be described in more detail so that the reader can understand the advantages and disadvantages of other algorithms.

2.In the part of model design, I think the author should elaborate in more detail on the reasons for choosing various optimization strategies and whether this strategy has been applied on other models.

3.The author can add some pictures in the necessary places in the article to make the expression more intuitive and easy to understand.

Reviewer #3: The paper falls into the class of Multi-Object-Tracking (MOT) systems for monitoring Holstein cattle. Here are my comments:

1. The English should be proofread. I suggest changing the title of the paper to "High-precision tracking and positioning for monitoring Holstein cattle".

2. The experimental section should be expanded by providing (a) processing time of the approach in terms of FPS; (b) results on MOT71 and MOT20 benchmarks to get a full idea of the general performance of the proposed approach vs. competitors.

Reviewer #4: Precision livestock farming utilises information technology to continuously monitor and manage livestock in real-time, which can improve individual animal health, welfare, productivity and the environmental impact of animal husbandry, contributing to the economic, social and environmental sustainability of livestock farming. Based on artificial intelligence, it promises to driving an agricultural revolution at a time when the world must produce more food using fewer resources.

Thus, Enhanced animal welfare emerges as a pivotal element in contemporary precision animal husbandry, with bovine monitoring constituting a significant facet of precision agriculture. Also, smart drones, outfitted with monitoring systems, have evolved into a viable solution for wildlife protection, moni-toring, and animal husbandry.

It is in this context that in this manuscript the authors propose a tracking algorithm, grounded in deep learning, adhering to the JDT paradigm estab-lished on the CenterTrack algorithm, designed to satisfy the requirements of mul-ti-objective tracking amidst intricate scenarios in practical applications.

The authors believe that the proposed algorithm achieved higher preformances compared to others known in the literature.

The manuscript needs much improvement in order to be accepted for publication. Authors should consider the comments/requirements/questions below:

1). Remarks and suggestions:

* The introduction is nevertheless long, it contains a few sentences that can be skipped.

* Figures 1, a and b) are not clear, they need to be improved in quality.

* The result of the simulation as well as the performance measurements presented in the manuscript must be clearly commented and analyzed. The authors presented surface and generic discussions.

2). Questions

Q1 : The authors state the following sentences (page 13):

"The proposed two-stage matching algorithm consists of two matching stages, both of which ............... thereby preserving the continuity of the tracking trajectory. This process is depicted in Figure 7. "

How did you take this into your program?

Q2 : How can you reduce the likelihood of tracking failures and increase robustness in various lighting conditions?

Q3 : How will you improve the accuracy in the MOT algorithm?

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: hong tao

Reviewer #3: No

Reviewer #4: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: renamed_245e0.docx

High-precision tracking and positioning for monitoring Holstein cattle

PONE-D-23-43870R1

Dear Dr. Lue,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

Ayesha Maqbool, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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