Milking system comprising a milking robot
AssigneeDeLaval Holding AB
InventorAndreas ERIKSSON
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A milking system that includes milking cups, a milking robot with a robot arm configured to attach each of the milking cups to a respective teat, a sensor that detects two adjacent teats, and a control arrangement communicatively connected to the sensor (160) and the robot arm, where the control arrangement is configured to determine a distance between the two adjacent teats, select one of the two adjacent teats to commence attachment of a first milking cup if the distance fulfils a distance criterion, and generate a command to the robot arm to commence the milking cup attachment to the selected teat.
Claims15
A milking system (100), comprising:
- a plurality of milking cups configured for placement on teats of an animal (110) during milk extraction;
- a milking robot (150) with a robot arm (155) configured to attach each one of the milking cups to a respective teat of the teats of the animal;
- a sensor (160) configured to detect two adjacent teats of the animal;
- and
- a control arrangement (170), communicatively connected to the sensor (160) and the robot arm (155),
- wherein the control arrangement (170) is configured to:
- determine a distance between the two adjacent teats, based on a measurement carried out by the sensor (160),
- determine whether the determined distance (300, 310, 320) fulfils a distance criterion, and
- when the determined distance fulfils the distance criterion, select one of the two adjacent teats as a selected teat for attachment of a first milking cup as a first one of the milking cups to be placed on the selected one of the two adjacent teats, and generate a command to the robot arm (155) to commence attachment of the first milking cup to the selected teat.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.