Milking box with robotic attacher and vision system
AssigneeTechnologies Holdings Corp.
InventorsHenk Hofman, Cor de Ruijter, Menno Koekoek, Peter van der Sluis
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A milking robot comprises a robotic arm, a camera coupled to the robotic arm, a camera-facing nozzle coupled to the robotic arm, and a controller. The robotic arm extends in a longitudinal direction between the hind legs and from the rear of a dairy livestock located in a milking stall. The camera-facing nozzle sprays a protective layer of the camera with a cleanser. The controller communicates a signal instructing the camera-facing nozzle to spray the camera with cleanser.
Claims21
1-8. (canceled)
A milking robot, comprising:
- a robotic arm that extends in a longitudinal direction between the hind legs and from the rear of a dairy livestock located in a milking stall;
- a camera coupled to a robotic arm;
- a camera-facing nozzle coupled to the robotic arm and operable to spray the camera with a cleanser;
- wherein the camera comprises a protective layer in front of a lens of the camera and the camera-facing nozzle sprays the cleanser on the protective layer;
- and
- a controller that is programmed to communicate a signal instructing the camera-facing nozzle to spray the camera with cleanser.
A milking robot, comprising:
- a main arm suspended vertically;
- a supplemental arm coupled to the main arm and extending along a longitudinal axis substantially perpendicular to the main arm, wherein the supplemental arm is operable to extend between the hind legs and from the rear of a dairy livestock located in a milking stall;
- a camera coupled to the supplemental arm;
- a camera-facing nozzle coupled to the supplemental arm and operable to spray the camera with a cleanser.
A milking robot, comprising:
- a main arm suspended vertically;
- a supplemental arm coupled to the main arm and extending along a longitudinal axis substantially perpendicular to the main arm, wherein the supplemental arm is operable to extend between the hind legs and from the rear of a dairy livestock located in a milking stall;
- a gripping portion extending from the supplemental arm;
- a camera coupled to the gripping portion;
- a camera-facing nozzle coupled to the gripping portion and operable to spray the camera with a cleanser;
- wherein the camera comprises a protective layer in front of a lens of the camera and the camera-facing nozzle sprays the cleanser on the protective layer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.