Animal husbandry – Milkers – With automatic control
Utility Patent
1999-02-19
2001-01-02
Carone, Michael J. (Department: 3643)
Animal husbandry
Milkers
With automatic control
C119S014020, C119S014030
Utility Patent
active
06167839
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention refers to an arrangement for performing an animal-related action on an animal, comprising means for determining the position of an animal part to be subjected to said animal-related action, and means for performing said animal-related action. Moreover, the invention refers to a method of performing an animal-related action on an animal.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
In connection with animal-related actions, it is necessary to determine the position of the animal part to be subjected to said action. E.g. in connection with automatic milking, the position of the teats is to be determined before the attachment of the teatcups to the teats.
A number of different solutions has been proposed to solve this problem. Thereby, one may differ between forcing systems and search systems. Forcing systems are based on the idea of forcing, for example by physically pushing, the animal to a determined position in the milking stall and in which the teats then may be found by means of a search equipment, for example including a video camera and image processing.
Search systems are based on the idea that the animal may stay in any position in a space, such as a milking stall, and it is the task of the search system to determine the position of the animal part. Thereby, a rough determination of the position of said part may first be performed, and from this rough position, the position of said part may be determined by means of a more sophisticated search equipment. Thereafter, a milking robot, for instance, may be activated to attach the teatcups to the teats in the positions determined by the said system. A disadvantage with such systems is that the position determining process is time-consuming, which means that a milking robot is occupied during this time period, and thus an efficient use of the milking robot is not possible to attain.
Furthermore, in connection with automatic milking it is known to determine the position of an animal in a stall by means of a device comprising spring biased arms abutting the animal and following its movements. Such a device functions for the determination of a rough position of the animal, from which position the teats, for instance, then may be found by a more sophisticated search equipment. However, such devices are mechanically very complex with many moving elements, and therefore they are subjected to wear and the reliability thereof is not satisfying. Moreover, cows being fairly strong easily may damage such arms; a mere bending thereof results in an inaccurate measurement of the animal position.
Many search systems rely for the function on individual-related data stored in the search equipment and comprising facts about the shape and the position of animal parts, such as the udder and the teats. However, since the shape of the udder is changing during the lactation period, such a method is not very exact and therefore such data need to be regularly updated in order to meet these changes. Moreover, storing of such individual-related data is a complex, time-consuming operation, especially when the herd comprises many animals.
It is also known to determine the position of the teats of an animal in connection with a milking occasion and to utilize this determined position at the next milking occasion. Such a method has the disadvantage that, due to the fact that the shape of the udder and the teats may change over the time and from one milking occasion to the next, the accuracy of the determination is not fully satisfactory.
NL-A-8 602 505 discloses an equipment for milking an animal at a milking station having means for the attachment of teatcups and means for detecting the position of the teats. Before the animal is led to the milking station it is firstly cleaned in a cleaning station and secondly milking samples are taken in a station disposed at a distance from the milking station. The milking sample station comprises means for detecting the position of the teats and a robot arm for the successive attachment of a teatcup to each of the teats. Moreover, the milking sample stations comprise means for investigating the quality of the milk and the health of the animal by measuring different milk and animal parameters. Furthermore, this document mentions the possibility of recording all measurement data for the purpose of comparisons with other measuring results.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to overcome the disadvantages mentioned above and provide an arrangement and a method by which the position of an animal part may be determined in a more efficient manner and with a high accuracy.
This object is obtained by the arrangement initially defined, which is characterized in that said position determining means is located at a first location having means for housing an animal and that said performing means is located at a second location having means for housing an animal at a distance from said first location and that means is provided for transferring the coordinates of said position determined at said first location to said performing means at said second location in order to enable the performance of said action with regard to said part. By such an arrangement the determination of an animal part may be performed before the animal-related action is to take place, which means that for example a milking robot may be utilized in an efficient manner. Moreover, the animal-related action may be performed on any animal without fetching animal-related data regarding the position of the teats from a data base. Accordingly, no individual-related data needs to be stored in advance, and furthermore it is not required to identify an individual animal for the purpose of determining the position of the teats.
According to an embodiment of the invention, said position determining means is provided to determine the position of said animal part in relation to an animal reference part of said animal. Such a relative position may easily be stored and transferred by electronic computer equipment.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, said first location is connected to said second location by an animal passage. By such a passage the animal may immediately after the determination of said position be transferred to the performing means, thereby minimizing the destruction of the determined position coordinates. Said animal passage may be defined by enclosure means.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, said first location comprises means provided to prevent the animal from moving away from said first location during at least a time period of the determining of said position. Thereby, the accuracy of the determination may be improved.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, said position determining means comprises at least one detector and processing means provided to determine said position in response to said detector. Thereby, said detector may comprise one or more of the following components; a video camera, a laser emitting device, an IR-sensor, and an ultrasonic measuring device.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, said performing means comprises an automatic handling device and animal-related means. Thereby, said animal part may comprise a teat and said animal-related means at least one teatcup to be applied to said teat of the animal by means of said automatic handling device.
The object defined above is also obtained by the method initially defined and comprising the following steps of: enabling a movement of the animal to a first location, determining the position of an animal part to be subjected to said animal-related action, enabling a movement of the animal from said first location to said second location, and performing said animal-related action with regard to said part at said determined position.
Preferred embodiments of the method are defined in the accompanying claims.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4726322 (1988-02-01), Torsius
patent: 4867108 (1989-09-01), Montalescot et al.
patent: 5784994 (1998-07-01), Van Der Lely
patent: 57912
Isaksson Anders
Starkhammar Johanna
Alfa Laval Agri AB
Bergin James S.
Carone Michael J.
Hovey Williams Timmons & Collins
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