Animal husbandry – Milkers – With automatic control
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-14
2001-05-22
Price, Thomas (Department: 3643)
Animal husbandry
Milkers
With automatic control
C119S014180
Reexamination Certificate
active
06234109
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an apparatus for recognising and determining the position of a part of an animal. The present invention also relates to a method for recognising and determining the position of a part of an animal.
DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART
Over some twenty to thirty years numerous proposals have been made for techniques by which a milking apparatus, defined as including a teat cup connected to a milking machine, a teat cleaning device and a teat examination device, can be applied to a teat of a milk animal, such as a cow, by automatic means so as to avoid the need for attendance by an operator during the procedure of milking an animal.
As automatic techniques for the rest of the milking procedure have been available for some time, automation of the teat-cup application stage has become the main obstacle to the development of a fully-automatic milking procedure which does not require continuous attendance and enables the so-called “milking on demand” regime.
For many reasons, e.g. animal safety and comfort, milk hygiene and economic efficiency, the application stage has to be extremely reliable. That is a teat-cup must be quickly and correctly applied to a teat on every occasion when an animal presents for milking. Also, the equipment for carry out the application stage has to work in difficult conditions and must to be durable while not being too expensive.
EP-A-306 579 discloses a combination of a general sensor and local sensor to guide a teat cup onto a teat. The general sensor is mounted alongside the stall and projects a sheet of light derived form a laser towards the region where the udder and teats of an animal in the stall for milking will be present. The sheet of light is incident on an udder and teats when present and produces lines of light on the udder and teats. The sheet of light can be swept through the region to an appropriate position. A camera is mounted as part of the sensor and forms an image of the lines. The image includes discontinuous lines for the teats where illuminated by the sheet of light. These lines are analysed in a control arrangement so as to find the position of the teat(s) and calculate coordinates by triangulation for two horizontal axis and vertical axis. Reference values for the coordinates stored in the control arrangement assist in analysis by limiting the search and calculating time. The calculated coordinates are used to bring the local sensors in range of a teat. Knowledge of the reference coordinates may be used to limit the image analysis to the part of the image where the teats are expected to be found, thereby reducing the calculation time.
EP-A2-647 393 discloses an implement for milking an animal, such as a cow. The implement includes a robot arm able to carry teat cups, a laser transmitter element and a receiver element. The receiver element includes a diode detector, which supplies a signal determined by three parameters: the distance d from the sensor means to the object, and the angles &agr;
1
and &agr;
2
which indicate the initial angle and the final angle, respectively, of the laser beam moving across the object. This implement makes use of a conventional animal recognition data source for identifying the animal when it arrives in the milking parlour. The animal recognition is of importance to this implement to the extent that thereby is known for each animal the position of the teats of the animal's udder relative to a fixed point on the animal.
The first disclosure (EP-A 306 579) has the disadvantage that two sensors are needed and that one has to be mounted alongside the stall in an exposed position.
The disclosures mentioned above all require the use of what is called historical data about the animals, i.e. where the teats are positioned on the udder at a previous milking session. They also require the use of stalls for the animals to be placed in.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved teat location technique for automatic milking procedures.
According to the invention there is provided an apparatus for recognising and determining the position of at least one part of an animal. The apparatus comprises a source of structured light for illuminating a region expected to contain said at least one part in such a way that an object illuminated by said light will have at least one illuminated area with a very distinct outline in at least one direction. The apparatus also comprises an image capture and processor means arranged to capture and process at least one image formed by said light and a control means to determine if the illuminated object is said part by comparing the image of the illuminated object to reference criteria defining different objects, and if said illuminated object is established to be said part of the animal, the position thereof is established. The apparatus further comprises an animal related device and means to guide the animal related device towards the determined position of said part. The main advantage with the apparatus according to the present invention is that it does not require the use of what is called historical data about the animals. The animals do not need to be placed in special stalls, i.e. they can walk around unobstructedly. Another advantage is that it is easy to distinguish between different parts of an animal.
Advantageously, the image capture and processor means is a digital camera comprising optical sensor elements arranged in a matrix form and a processor means, wherein said optical sensor elements and said processor means are integrally formed on a substrate. Hereby is achieved that the apparatus will work fast and be able to handle the situation when the animal is moving in a better way.
Preferably, the optical sensor elements are photo diodes, and said digital camera also comprises threshold means for adjusting a threshold value, whereby signals from said photo diodes will be ignored if their levels are below said threshold value. Hereby is achieved that the illuminated object can be more easily separated from the background.
Advantageously, the apparatus also comprises a robot arm, wherein said source of structured light is arranged on the robot arm.
According to a first embodiment of the apparatus according to the present invention, the source of structured light is a laser emitting device, and each area is in the form of a line or a dot and the number of lines or dots is such that the control means is allowed to identify the illuminated object. Hereby is achieved that the illuminated object will be easily identified.
According to a second embodiment of the apparatus according to the present invention, the source of structured light is a lamp having a screen to clearly delimit the light from the lamp in one direction. Hereby is achieved that the illuminated object will be easily identified in another way.
Preferably, the apparatus also comprises at least one lens associated with said screen.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method for recognising and determining the position of at least one part of an animal. The method comprises the following steps:
illuminating with structured light a region expected to contain said at least one part in such a way that an object illuminated by said light will have at least one illuminated area with a very distinct outline in at least one direction,
capturing and processing at least one image formed by said light,
determining if the illuminated object is said part by comparing the image of the illuminated object to reference criteria defining different objects, and if said illuminated object is established to be said part of the animal, the position thereof is established, and
providing information for guiding an animal related device towards the determined position of said part. The main advantage with the method according to the present invention is that it does not require the use of what is called historical data about the animals. The animals do not need to be placed in special stalls, i.e. they can walk around unobst
Andersson Lars
Nilsson Mats
Alfa Laval Agri AB
Price Thomas
Stoltz Melvin I.
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