Pet and Animal Wearables We Develop

Our team of engineers can design:

  • GPS-enabled collars with live location tracking, history and instant alerts about escape;
  • lightweight trackers for cats or small dogs with built-in reporting;
  • Bluetooth proximity tags for home, shelter, or sitting purposes;
  • tags for livestock or dairy cows monitoring location and movements;
  • equine wearables for tracking movements, training, or monitoring horses in a stable;
  • activity and sleep sensors based on the IMU mounted on a collar or harness;
  • readings of temperature, environmental parameters, or pre-defined events;
  • white label applications and dashboards for pet products.

Taking into account possible changes in the pet activity, the owner may decide to check whether something is wrong with the pet or call a vet, but this does not mean that it is a diagnosis. Veterinary claims, safety and effectiveness must be evaluated depending on the specific market.

Case Study: Smart Collar Development for Dogs, Cats and Cattle

Featured Project
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End-to-End IoT Product Engineering for Pets Devotee

Adequate Infosoft created the smart-collar ecosystem which connects pets and their owners like never before. We managed all phases of the product development, including but not limited to hardware architecture, PCB layout and firmware.

Product Type Smart Collar Ecosystem
Coverage Multi-Species · Multi-Region
Scope Hardware · Firmware · App · Cloud
Smart Collar Development 1
Smart Collar Development 2
Smart Collar Development 3
Phase 01

Project Requirements

The client required an IoT platform, which could be used for various types of animals. Dog and cat collars needed to be small and lightweight whereas cattle collars were expected to be sturdy and operate in an area where capacity is not stable.

The platform needed to have features such as tracking, monitoring, geofencing, alerts about battery life, etc. It was not just necessary to implement those features but also develop an app to use the platform and control animals.

Phase 02

nRF52840-Based Hardware and Custom PCB

We selected the Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840 SoC as the primary controller because of its low-power ARM Cortex-M4F processor, Bluetooth 5 connectivity, hardware security capabilities and suitability for battery-powered wearable devices.

The custom multi-layer PCB incorporated:

  • Nordic nRF52840 Bluetooth Low Energy SoC
  • Quectel BG95 LTE-M/NB-IoT and GNSS module
  • BMA400 low-power three-axis accelerometer
  • Battery charging and protection circuitry
  • Fuel-gauge circuit for battery-level reporting
  • External flash for offline data buffering
  • Status LED, buzzer and vibration support
  • USB-based charging and debugging interface
  • RF-aware antenna layout for BLE, cellular and GNSS

Different designs of enclosures and straps have been created using the same electronic core parts. The dog and cat product was made small and light; the cattle version had a more durable and robust enclosure that could withstand long outdoor usage.

Phase 03

Embedded Firmware and Battery Optimization

Our embedded engineers developed firmware using the nRF Connect SDK and Zephyr RTOS. Firmware consists of a well-built system, where handling of the sensor, obtaining the location, and transmitting of the information, as well as battery-efficient operation have been separated into blocks.

In such a manner, event-driven processing instead of keeping all components working at all times is used in the firmware development. The accelerometer is designed in such a way that it is located in a low-power mode and will wake the main controller exactly when there is a certain movement.

Important firmware capabilities included:

  • BLE device discovery, pairing and provisioning
  • Activity and inactivity detection
  • Periodic or motion-triggered GNSS positioning
  • Configurable geofence and tracking modes
  • Local storage during network interruptions
  • Automatic reconnection and delayed synchronization
  • Battery and device-health reporting
  • Secure over-the-air firmware updates
  • Deep-sleep and peripheral power-control modes

These techniques helped balance tracking frequency, connectivity and battery consumption for different animal-monitoring scenarios.

Phase 04

Communication with the Mobile Application

When the user is nearby the collar, it connects to the mobile app via BLE. BLE is used for the initial link establishment, Wi-Fi or GSM configuration, device settings changes, battery status and firmware updates.

For remote tracking the devices use the Quectel BG95 module that transmits location data and device telemetry through LTE-M or NB-IoT. All data is transferred with the help of the simple MQTT protocol protected by TLS. This provides updates for users even when they are away from the animal.

For cattle deployments where public cellular coverage is limited, the architecture can also support a long-range gateway-based communication option.

Phase 05

AWS IoT Cloud Architecture

We established a connected backend utilizing Amazon Web Services. AWS IoT Core is responsible for safe collar connections and acquiring MQTT telemetry.

The cloud architecture consists of the following components:

  • AWS IoT Core for connecting devices and issuing certificates
  • AWS Lambda to process events and alerts
  • Amazon DynamoDB for storing devices and animals records
  • Amazon Timestream for monitoring time series telemetry
  • Amazon S3 to store reports and archived content
  • Amazon Cognito for ensuring safe user sign in
  • Amazon SNS and Firebase Cloud Messaging for sending notifications
  • Amazon CloudWatch for the logging and monitoring

Using the cloud rules enables location, movement, battery, and connectivity event processing. The platform is able to produce notifications in case of geofence violations, inactivity, low battery problems, and connection issues.

Phase 06

Cross-Platform Mobile Application

Flutter was utilized to create the mobile application, which has allowed coding for both Android and iOS platforms simultaneously. Users have the option to enroll their animals, connect the collar, track their locations from the past, mark the secure areas, find out the battery level and obtain notifications.

Dog and cat owners can keep records of their beloved pets while livestock managers can control pet animals by using the same account.

Phase 07

Complete Smart-Collar Ecosystem

This project demonstrates Adequate Infosoft's end-to-end IoT capabilities across PCB engineering, Zephyr firmware, BLE and cellular communication, AWS IoT infrastructure and cross-platform mobile development. We delivered an adaptable connected-animal platform rather than a standalone tracking device.

Explore Our Relevant Animal and Pet Wearable Development Case Studies

Know about our experience in developing pet wearables in an exciting case study that highlights our knowledge of connected devices, BLE communicating devices, sensor integration, and mobile applications.

Our engineers specialize in reliable data transfer, low-power technology, and successful integration that enables us to create advanced pet monitoring systems.

LoRaWAN Livestock Monitoring Device Using STM32
LoRaWAN · STM32

LoRaWAN Livestock Monitoring Device Using STM32

This project demonstrates our experience developing low-power wearable monitoring devices for livestock. The solution integrates STM32-based firmware with a Wio-E5 LoRa module to support long-range wireless communication and animal monitoring.

Our engineering work covered power optimization, RF and antenna testing, PCB validation, private LoRaWAN infrastructure integration, device provisioning, and manufacturing preparation.

Read the case study
BlueLion Smart GPS Tracking System
GPS · Azure

BlueLion Smart GPS Tracking System

The BlueLion Smart GPS Tracking System showcases our skills in creating connected tracking systems for different purposes, including tracking pets, kids, bicycles, and automobiles.

The work involved designing the printed circuit board, using GPS and mobile communication technologies, creating an ESP32 firmware, using Azure cloud services as infrastructure, geofencing technology, and mobile applications built with Flutter.

Read the case study
WHOOP-Style Smart Wearable for Horses
Equine · nRF5340

WHOOP-Style Smart Wearable for Horses

The emphasis of this equine wearable project is on the acquisition of physiological as well as motion data through an embedded sensing platform. Based on Nordic nRF52840/nRF5340 technology, the solution combines Bluetooth Low Energy with ECG, bio-impedance, IMU, and temperature sensors.

The development scope includes the edge processing, behavior analysis, smart textile, wireless charging, and preparation for mass production.

Read the case study
IoT and AI-Powered Dairy Management Platform
IoT · AI

IoT and AI-Powered Dairy Management Platform

The Dairy360 platform facilitates the connection of farmers, livestock owners, and veterinarians via a system that allows the monitoring and management of livestock and livestock management.

This system has features such as tracking animals through GPS-enabled smart tags, as well as NFC, LoRa and Bluetooth technology, and the ability to sync data offline. It also tracks locations, movements, health records, breeding cycles, vaccination schedules, and predictive health monitoring.

Read the case study

Choosing Connectivity and Location Technology

GNSS and cellular collars

The GNSS system provides coordinates outdoors without having to rely on any local infrastructure. LTE-M or NB-IoT can transmit these coordinates even if there is no mobile phone coverage, as long as operator support and roaming is available. LTE-M suits mobile, fast-moving products; NB-IoT suits simple reports using small amounts of data.

The accuracy of GPS data depends on geometry, obstructions, atmosphere conditions and design of the receiver, and can become worse near buildings and trees. Collars introduce body shadowing and changes in orientation — that's why we design antennas, create schedules, use filtering and confidence reporting taking into account animal behavior.

BLE, Wi-Fi and home-zone awareness

Bluetooth Low Energy provides phone-based location-finding, as well as proximity and gateway zone capabilities. Wi-Fi observations can help identify known locations, or help improve estimates in the cloud. Signals are affected by walls and the orientation of the body.

A hybrid collar can remain in low-power home mode near a trusted signal, then activate GNSS and cellular after departure. Our wearable IoT device development services connect radios, firmware, apps and alerts.

LoRaWAN and private-area tracking

LoRaWAN can suit farms or managed facilities with gateway coverage and small payloads. It is not a universal replacement for GNSS or nationwide connectivity. Terrain, vegetation, duty-cycle rules and downlinks require evaluation.

Sensing of Activities and Behaviors

The collar's accelerometers are capable of measuring activity at a low energy consumption level. It may be supported by machine learning or rules to derive activity, inactivity, shaking, or scratching.

The use of gyroscopes introduces the ability to measure rotation while having to expend more resources. Any addition of the sensor would require someone to specify precisely what it serves.

Studies done on dogs suggest that validation needs to be congruent with the placement and activity. The research has shown that accelerometry gives the right results but also the lack of uniform results according to the exact mounting and the performed activity.

The breed, weight, hair length, leash state, gait, and all have an effect on results. Therefore before stating the performance of a device, we need to detail labels, reference videos, animal species, location of the device, and metrics.

The training and testing data must be kept separate. Mobile applications need to highlight the periods of missing or uncertain data instead of marking every activity as certain.

End-to-End Smart Collar Engineering

Feasibility and product architecture

The species, dimensions, wearing location, warning delay time, atmosphere, battery, areas, and information from the sensors are described in detail. Prototyping is done to examine the comfort level, antennas, motion information, and current flow, before producing smaller versions of the prototype.

Compact PCB, antenna and enclosure design

Smart collars balance weight, antennas, battery, sealing and impacts. Our wearable PCB design and prototyping team develops schematics, rigid-flex layouts, power, charging, RF, sensors and test points.

Enclosures account for snag hazards, sharp edges, chewing, attachment, charging, cleaning and ingress. Only finished-assembly testing establishes an IP rating.

Low-power embedded firmware

Firmware coordinates GNSS, network, BLE, sensors, storage and sleep. Adaptive policies report less at home, increase updates during escape and recover safely. Our wearable firmware development services cover RTOS, drivers, secure boot, OTA and SDKs.

Offline queues preserve events through gaps. Timestamps, sources and quality distinguish delayed uploads from live positions. Watchdogs and recovery tests reduce silent failures.

Battery life technology

Battery running time and performance differ depending on coverage, GNSS visibility, the update interval, temperature, sampling and movement.

We budget based on states and measure the performance of the hardware in situations including walking, the time spent at home, poor connectivity and retries. The necessary conditions for performance will be published by us. Charging options include wired connectors, docks and wireless charging.

Pet-owner apps and fleet platforms

Apps support onboarding, pet profiles, maps, safe zones, history, activity, battery warnings, sharing and lost-pet mode. Our IoT mobile app development services cover Android, iOS, APIs and device management.

Cloud platforms manage identities, geofences, alerts, subscriptions, firmware and diagnostics. Organizations may need multi-animal dashboards, roles, audits and APIs.

Geofencing and alert accuracy

It should be noted that geofencing refers to software instead of a physical fence. GPS jitter may lead to false exits while network lags can delay alerts.

Hysteresis, time spent in the area, multiple readings, and confidence levels help tell apart departing animals and measurement errors. Notifications must indicate the time and method of determination, considering that delivery depends on collar coverage, cloud connectivity, and phone settings.

Security, Privacy and Responsible Data Use

Location shows where people live, where they go and what they do. We make device IDs, pairing via authentication, encryption, role-based sharing, signed firmware, OTA control, auditing and deleting.

Tracking should not happen with identifiers. Veterinary records need to have a purpose, consent, retention and access.

Get Your Pet Wearable Solution from Adequate Infosoft

Looking for a GPS dog collar, a handheld pet tracking device, an activity monitor, or a platform for tracking multiple animals? Adequate Infosoft can assist you in every step of the way - from an idea to the final product.

Provide us with available information about types of animals, approximate dimensions, geography, frequencies of location updates, types of sensors, and batteries needed, to get started designing the system.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a smart collar work without the owner's phone?

Certainly. The combination of GNSS and cellular technology finds location by itself, provided that it has access to it. The BLE version requires a mobile phone to be present nearby. Independent navigation demands bigger computational capability of both the hardware and subscription.

How accurate is a GPS pet collar?

Accuracy depends on satellites, antenna, terrain, trees, buildings, orientation and filtering. We define field scenarios and report measured error and fix availability instead of promising one universal number.

How long will the battery last?

The time of operation depends on the frequency of updates, coverage, acquisition of GNSS data, sensors in use, climate conditions and the size of the cells. Some adaptive modes will help.

Can a collar detect illness or abnormal behavior?

It can identify defined activity or behavior patterns after appropriate data collection and validation. A change may support owner awareness, but diagnosis and treatment decisions belong to veterinarians. Medical or veterinary claims change labeling and evidence obligations.

Can you develop hardware, firmware, applications and cloud technology simultaneously?

Yes. Coordination of radio behavior, data format, geofencing, notifications, OTA, and production testing is possible.

Editorial Sources

US FDA

How FDA Regulates Animal Devices

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GPS.gov

GPS Accuracy

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Bluetooth SIG

Bluetooth Location Services

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GSMA

Mobile IoT Deployment Guide

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PubMed

Validity, Practical Utility and Reliability of Actigraph Accelerometry in Dogs

Read source
PubMed

Deep Learning Classification of Canine Behavior Using a Collar-Mounted Accelerometer

Read source
Ashok Patel
Ashok Patel
Senior Engineering Project Manager
AI/ML, DevOps, Data Science & Automation | IoT & C#/.NET | Azure & AWS Expert | Certified AI & Cloud Engineer | 1,500+ LinkedIn Followers
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