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AssigneeAlfa Laval Agri AB
InventorsRobert Christopher Hall, Stephan Robert Lee, Diane Susan Spencer, Michael John Street, Jan Stein, Benny Ornerfors
Estimating the term…
A method of guiding a milking apparatus support towards at least one teat of a milk animal, characterized in that the method comprises the following steps: moving a support to a fixed start position within a stall; illuminating a region expected to contain at least one udder with a sheet of light from the support; capturing images by viewing the region with a video camera; analyzing the captured images to identify possible teat candidates and selecting one of these teat candidates as a target teat; determining the position of the target teat and homing in the support and any supported milking apparatus to the target teat.
A method of guiding a milking apparatus support (16) towards at least one teat of a milk animal, comprising the following steps:
A milking apparatus support (16) guide arrangement, comprising a support (16) which carries a source (10, 11) of a sheet of light (12), positioned to pass no lower than the mouth (14) of a teat cup (15) arranged on said support (16), and a video camera (1 7) arranged to view through the sheet and over the mouth of the teat cup (15), wherein said support (16) has a start position, wherein said source (10, 11) and video camera (17) are together arranged to cooperate (12, 19) forwardly of the support (16), the video camera (17) arranged to capture an image (41) formed by said light (12) forwardly of the support (16) and provide an image signal, the arrangement further including image signal processing means (35) to analyze said captured image signal and identify possible teat candidates (44, 45, 56, 58), to select one of said teat candidates (44, 45, 56, 58) as a target teat (44), to determine the position of said target teat (44), to provide in said captured image (41) the position (50) of a teat cup entry point for a target teat (44), wherein the image signal processing means (35) includes means to quantify the spatial separation of the teat cup entry point from the position of said target teat (44), to quantify said separation in steps defined by areas (51, 52, 53) of said captured image, and provide homing in information for said support (16) on the basis of the amount of said separation, and wherein the image signal processing means (35) home in said support (16) and any supported milking apparatus (15) to said target teat (44).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.