Method and apparatus for operating a rotary milking platform to maximise the number of animals milked per unit time and a rotary milking platform

Apparatus for operating a rotary milking platform to maximise the number of animals milked per unit time, the apparatus comprising a signal processor configured:

• to compute a predicted finishing position for each animal currently on the platform, at which milking of that animal is predicted to be finished, the predicted finishing position of each animal currently on the platform being computed as a function of historical data of that animal, the historical data of each animal currently on the platform comprising at least one of a historical milking time per milking session to that animal, and a historical milk yield per milking session of that animal,
• to compute a non-productive period for each animal currently on the platform being a period that that animal will remain on the platform from the predicted finishing position of that animal to the one of the exit position of the platform for that animal and an ideal finishing position for that animal,
• to compute the total value of the non-productive periods for the respective animals currently on the platform, and
• to determine the optimum angular velocity of the platform as the value of the angular velocity of the platform at which the total value of the sum of the non-productive periods of the respective animals currently on the platform is minimised.

A method for operating a rotary milking platform to maximise the number of animals milked per unit time on the platform, the platform comprising a plurality of animal accommodating locations circumferentially arranged around the platform, and each animal accommodating location is configured to pass through P positions between and including an entry position at which the respective animal accommodating locations are sequentially entered by the animals, and an exit position from which the respective animal accommodating locations are sequentially exited by the animals during each revolution of the platform, the method comprising:

• computing a predicted finishing time for each animal currently on the platform at which milking of that animal is predicted to be finished, the predicted finishing time for each animal currently on the platform being computed as a function of historical data of that animal, the historical data of each animal currently on the platform comprising at least one of a historical milking time per milking session to milk that animal, and a historical milk yield per milking session of that animal,
• computing a predicted finishing position for each animal currently on the platform, at which milking of that animal is predicted to be finished, the predicted finishing position for each animal currently on the platform being computed as a function of the computed predicted finishing time of that animal at which milking of that animal is predicted to be finished, and
• determining the optimum angular velocity of the platform to maximise the number of animals milked per unit time on the platform as a function of the computed predicted finishing position of each animal currently on the platform.