Animal husbandry – Milkers – With automatic control
Patent
1998-06-18
1999-08-10
Carone, Michael J.
Animal husbandry
Milkers
With automatic control
119 1418, A01J 5017, A01J 502, A01J 504
Patent
active
059342200
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method of guiding a milking apparatus support towards a teat of a milk animal and a milking apparatus support guide arrangement.
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 to carry out the application stage has to work in difficult conditions and must 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 from 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 axes and a vertical axis. Reference values for the coordinates stored in the control arrangement assist in analysis by limiting the search and calculation 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.
This disclosure has the disadvantage that two sensors are needed and that one has to be mounted alongside the stall in an exposed position.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved teat location technique for automatic milking procedures, which can provide the complete teat location process.
According to the invention, there is provided a method of guiding a milking apparatus support towards at least one teat of a milk animal, characterized in that the method comprises the following steps: reference to any animal, contain one udder, camera, teat. that it does not require the use of so called historical data regarding the teat positions of the animal individualas. The animals do not need to be placed in special stalls with tight constraints. They are free to move within the limits of the stall.
Advantageously, the method, subsequently to selecting a target teat, comprises the step: said target teat. Hereby, the speeding up of the method is achieved.
Preferably, the method also comprises the following steps: for a target teat, said target teat, and amount of said separation.
Advantageously, the method also comprises the step: image.
Preferably, the method also comprises the step: captured image to where the entry point for a supported teat cup is at the image position of the teat cup entry point for the selected teat cup.
Advantageously, the method also comprises the step: adjacent and having a
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Sheet-of-Light Range Imaging, Linkoping Studies in Science and Technology, Thesis No. 404 Mattias Johannesson, Nov. 1993.
Hall Robert Christopher
Lee Stephan Robert
Ornerfors Benny
Spencer Diane Susan
Stein Jan
Alfa Laval Agri AB
Bergin James S.
Carone Michael J.
Stoltz Melvin I.
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