SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MILKING OF A DAIRY ANIMAL

Abstract

A dairy animal treatment system for fully automatically performing a teat-related operation on a dairy animal, including a treatment location for receiving the dairy animal, a treatment device which is configured for performing the teat-related operation on the dairy animal, a teat-detecting device for determining a teat position of the teat of the dairy animal, a dairy animal position-determining device for repeatedly determining an animal position of said dairy animal with respect to the milking stall and/or the dairy animal position-determining device, a robot arm for moving the treatment device towards the teat, and a control device which is configured to control the robot arm on the basis of the determined animal position and the determined teat position. The dairy animal position-determining device comprises a mm-wavelength radar device which transmits a radar signal having a wavelength in the mm range.

Claims

1. A dairy animal treatment system for fully automatically performing a teat-related operation on a dairy animal, comprising: a treatment location for receiving the dairy animal, a treatment device which is configured for performing the teat-related operation on the dairy animal, a teat-detecting device for determining a teat position of the teat of the dairy animal, a dairy animal position-determining device for repeatedly determining an animal position of said dairy animal with respect to the milking stall and/or the dairy animal position-determining device, a robot arm for moving the treatment device towards the teat, and a control device which is configured to control the robot arm on the basis of the determined animal position and the determined teat position, wherein the dairy animal position-determining device comprises a mm-wavelength radar device.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the radar device comprises a frequency-modulated CW radar device.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the radar device is configured to generate a chirp.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the radar device comprises a 77 GHz band radar device.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the dairy animal position-determining device is configured for at least looking down obliquely onto the dairy animal in the milking stall and to determine a position of a rear end of the dairy animal as the animal position.

6. The system according to claim 5, wherein the control device contains information about a position of the teats with respect to said position of the rear end of said dairy animal.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the control device is configured to bring the robot arm to a starting position for swinging under the dairy animal on a basis of the determined animal position.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the control device is configured to follow said animal position while performing the teat-related operation.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein the treatment location comprises a milking stall on solid ground or on a rotatable platform.

10. The system according to claim 1, wherein the treatment device is configured for at least one of cleaning, stimulating, milking and spraying a teat of the dairy animal.

11. The system according to claim 3, wherein the chirp has a bandwidth of between 1 GHz to 5 GHz.

12. The system according to claim 10, further comprising a teat cup, teat brush and/or spray nozzle.

13. The system according to claim 5, wherein the control device contains information about a position of the teats with respect to said position of the rear end of said dairy animal.

Description

[0022] The invention will be explained in more detail below with reference to the drawing, which shows a non-limiting embodiment, and in which the sole FIGURE is a diagrammatic side view of a system according to the invention.

[0023] The FIGURE diagrammatically shows a side view of a dairy animal treatment system 1 according to the invention. The system 1 comprises a milking stall 2, a radar device 3 with an effective “image field” 4, a control unit 5 and a robot arm end part 6 with a milking cup 7, and a teat-detecting device 8 with an image field 9. Reference numeral 15 denotes a cow, having teats 16 and a rear end 17.

[0024] The milking stall 2 may be, for example, a stand-alone milking stall as is usual with individual milking robots, such as the Lely Astronaut®-system or the DeLaval VMS-system. Alternatively, it may be a box in a multibox system or a treatment location, such as a milking position on a carousel.

[0025] Reference numeral 3 denotes a mm-wave radar device, such as the IWR1443 by Texas Instruments, see e.g. http://www.ti.com/product/IWR1443. This web page also refers to technical documents, including some eight “white papers”, containing background information and applications. In the present context, the white paper “The fundamentals of millimetre wave sensors” by lovescu et al, as can be downloaded from the abovementioned web page, is of particular interest. This describes, inter alia, the method of calculating distance, the method of calculating speed, etc. Thus, it is also possible to calculate the image field 4 of the radar device shown in FIG. 1 in case there are two receiving antennae which are able to calculate, for example, a speed from the reflected signals, see in this context “Maximum angular field of view”.

[0026] Reference numeral 5 denotes a control unit which is connected to the radar device 3 and receives, for example, distance or position information about the cow 15 from the latter. By means thereof, the control unit 5 furthermore controls a robot arm, of which only the end part 6 is shown in FIG. 1. This end part 6 has four milking cups 7, of which only one is shown here in a rest position. The end part 6 furthermore has a teat-detecting device 8, such as a scanner or an optical 2D or 3D camera. The teat-detecting device 8 has an image field 9 for finding positions of the teats 16 of the cow 15.

[0027] A desired accuracy for the position of the teats 16 determined by the teat-detecting device is in the order of magnitude of 1 cm (slightly smaller than the teat cross section). This accuracy is not (yet) readily achievable by suitable radar devices which are sufficiently compact, quick, reliable and inexpensive. By contrast, achieving accuracy in determining the position of the cow 15 by means of the mm-wave radar device 3 is readily possible. This determined cow position can be used to swing in the robot arm in such a way that the robot arm, and in particular the end part 6 with the milking cups 7, does not hit the (legs of the) cow and also ends up, for example, in an advantageous starting position for determining the positions of the teats 16. To this end, it is possible, for example, to use a historical correlation between the position of the teats 16 with respect to the rear end 17 of the cow, either from several measurements/milking operations or from literature sources. In this case, the permissible deviation in swinging-in or starting position is much greater than the accuracy required when connecting a milking cup to a teat 16. It will be clear that the accuracy which is still sufficient when determining said cow position is much less strict and may, for example, be in the order of magnitude of 10 cm, which can be achieved relatively easily by said mm-wave radar devices.

[0028] In this case, the cow position is determined, for example, as the position of the rear end 17 of the cow, being the point which is situated closest to the radar device 3. In view of the general shape of the rear end of the cow 3, namely approximately block-shaped, the coordinate measured in the longitudinal direction of the cow is in particular a fixed value with regard to the cow. Also, even if the position of the closest point in the transverse direction on the cow 15 could vary slightly, this still does not make a difference for the location where the robot arm swings in. It should be noted in this case that the position of the radar device 3 is preferably sufficiently far behind the cow 15, because in case of, for example, a radar position in the centre above the cow, this correlation would be lost.

[0029] It follows from the above that, according to the invention, it is particularly easy for the control unit 5 to find a suitable swinging-in and starting position for (the end part 6 of) the robot arm by means of the radar device 3. It is therefore readily possible to make the milking robot as illustrated in FIG. 1 quicker than known milking robots. In addition, the milking device will, under certain circumstances, also be more reliable than known milking robots. After all, compared to a known alternative, such as an optical camera, the radar device 3 is not susceptible, or at least less susceptible, to formation of condensation thereon, or dirt or dust, etc.

[0030] Furthermore, it should be noted here that the invention may also be used in other teat-treatment devices than milking devices, such as a spraying robot which sprays a teat dip on the teats 16 of the cow 15, as is compulsory in some countries. Such a spraying robot also has to be able to reliably find the teats 16, in which case it is equally possible to use the radar device 3 for determining the (approximate) position of the cow 15. Yet more alternatives relate to systems for prior cleaning and stimulating of the teats 16. This may be achieved, for example, by using a separate teat cup (not shown) which applies cleaning liquid to the teat 16 and collects it again, and is also able to stimulate the teat by means of this cleaning liquid and/or by means of suitable pulsation. Even if it is equipped with such a separate teat cup, the system according to the invention is particularly suitable for quickly and reliably attaching this teat cup. Alternatively, it is also possible to use cleaning and stimulating brushes for the separate teat cup, as are known per se from, for example, the Lely Astronaut® milking robot system.

[0031] The dairy animal treatment systems as described above are able to quickly and reliably bring their respective teat-treatment device to the teats 16. If necessary, it is advantageous if the dairy animal treatment system can also follow or even predict the position of the cow 15 (or of course any other dairy animal, such as a goat). This may be advantageous for the control unit 5 in order to adjust the robot arm, if the cow 15 moves while the end part 6 swings in or while the cup 7 is brought to the teats 16, for example. It is also the case that, if for example milking cups 7 are attached to the teats 16 of the cow 15 and are only connected to the robot arm via milking hoses, these milking cups 7 are at risk of being pulled off the teats if the cow moves too far from the robot arm. It is therefore advantageous if this robot arm, again particularly the end part 6, is moved by the control unit based on the animal position determined by means of the mm-wave radar device 3. The radar device 3 may repeatedly determine this position, such as at intervals of 0.5 s, 1 s, etc, or also virtually continuously. It is also possible for the radar device 3 to determine the speed of (the rear end 17 of) the cow 15, either by processing the change in time of the determined position or by a Doppler-FFT measurement by means of the transmitted radar signal which, to this end, now contains two “chirps” which are temporally separated from each other. To this end, the reader is referred to the white paper “The fundamentals of millimetre wave sensors” by lovescu et al which has already been mentioned above.

[0032] In fact, it is even generally the case that the invention offers advantages for a dairy animal treatment system for fully automatically performing a teat-related operation on a dairy animal, comprising a treatment location for receiving the dairy animal, a treatment device which is configured for performing the teat-related operation on the dairy animal, a teat-detecting device for determining a teat position of the teat of the dairy animal, a dairy animal position-determining device for repeatedly determining an animal position of said dairy animal with respect to the milking stall and/or the dairy animal position-determining device, a robot arm for moving the treatment device to the teat, and a control device which is configured to control, that is to say to move, the robot arm on the basis of the determined animal position, wherein the dairy animal position-determining device comprises a mm-wavelength radar device. This means that the invention achieves the same advantages, in principle for all embodiments mentioned above or below, in dairy animal treatment systems in which the robot arm is moved on the basis of the animal position determined by means of the mm-wave radar device. In other words, it is not necessary to move the robot arm on the basis of a determined teat position in order to achieve the advantages of the invention.

[0033] The illustrated and described embodiments are not intended to be limiting, but only serve to explain the explanation. The scope of protection of the invention is determined by the attached claims.