Construction for automatically milking animals

Abstract

A construction for automatically milking animals, such as cows, comprising a milking parlor with a milking robot and a covered area where the animals can move freely about. The construction further includes a system of one-way portals, e.g., doors and gates, which open in one direction to define a path from the milking parlor through the covered area and finally back to the milking parlor. The covered area may also be adjacent to an enclosed pasture divided into a plurality of enclosed regions connected to the covered area and to each other by one-way portals, thus defining a path leading from the milking parlor through the enclosed area through each region of the pasture back to the covered area and to the milking parlor. The milking parlor includes two adjacently arranged milking compartments. The milking robot is installed between the compartments so as to be movable from one to the other under the udder and teats of an animal therein whereby an animal is first milked in a compartment on one side, and then on the other compartment, from the other side. Also installed between the compartments is a mechanism for automatically cleaning the animal's udder and teats before they are milked and while an animal in the other compartment is being milked.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.