Vision system with teat detection
AssigneeTechnologies Holdings Corp.
InventorsMark A. Foresman, Bradley J. Prevost
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system that includes a laser configured to generate a profile signal of at least a portion of a dairy livestock and a processor. The processor is configured to obtain the profile signal and detect one or more edge pair candidates in the profile signal, compare the complementary distance gradients of each of the one or more edge pair candidates to a minimum distance gradient length to be considered an edge pair, and identify an edge pair from among the one or more edge pair candidates as a teat candidate based on the comparison. The processor is further configured to determine position information for the teat candidate.
Claims20
A vision system comprising:
- a laser configured to generate a profile signal of at least a portion of a dairy livestock, wherein the profile signal comprises:
- one or more rising distance gradients indicating an increase in the distance between the dairy livestock and the laser;
- and
- one or more falling distance gradients indicating a decrease in the distance between the dairy livestock and the laser;
- and
- a processor operably coupled to the laser, and configured to:
- obtain the profile signal;
- detect one or more edge pair candidates in the profile signal, wherein each of the one or more edge pair candidates comprises complementary distance gradients comprising a rising distance gradient and a falling distance gradient;
- compare the complementary distance gradients of each of the one or more edge pair candidates to a threshold value to be considered an edge pair;
- identify an edge pair from among the one or more edge pair candidates as a teat candidate based on the comparison;
- and
- determine position information for the teat candidate.
An apparatus comprising:
- a processor in signal communication with a laser, configured to:
- obtain a profile signal of at least a portion of a dairy livestock, wherein the profile signal comprises:
- one or more rising distance gradients indicating an increase in the distance between the dairy livestock and the laser;
- and
- one or more falling distance gradients indicating a decrease in the distance between the dairy livestock and the laser;
- and
- detect one or more edge pair candidates in the profile signal, wherein each of the one or more edge pair candidates comprises complementary distance gradients comprising a rising distance gradient and a falling distance gradient;
- compare the complementary distance gradients of each of the one or more edge pair candidates to a threshold value to be considered an edge pair;
- identify an edge pair from among the one or more edge pair candidates as a teat candidate based on the comparison;
- and
- determine position information for the teat candidate.
A teat detection method comprising:
- obtaining, by a processor, a profile signal of at least a portion of a dairy livestock, wherein the profile signal comprises:
- one or more rising distance gradients indicating an increase in the distance between the dairy livestock and a laser;
- and
- one or more falling distance gradients indicating a decrease in the distance between the dairy livestock and the laser;
- detecting, by the processor, one or more edge pair candidates in the profile signal, wherein each of the one or more edge pair candidates comprises complementary distance gradients comprising a rising distance gradient and a falling distance gradient;
- comparing, by the processor, one or more complementary distance gradient lengths for each of the one or more edge pair candidates to a threshold value to be considered an edge pair;
- identifying, by the processor, an edge pair from among the one or more edge pair candidates as a teat candidate based on the comparison;
- and
- determining, by the processor, position information for the teat candidate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.