System and method for controlling the position of a robot carriage based on the position of a milking stall of an adjacent rotary milking platform

A method for controlling the position of a robot carriage, comprising:

• receiving by a controller a first rotary encoder signal indicating a first rotational position, of a milking stall of a rotary milking platform, the first rotational position corresponding to a starting linear position of a robot carriage on a carriage track positioned adjacent to the rotary milking platform;
• receiving by the controller a second rotary encoder signal indicating a second rotational position of the milking stall of the rotary milking platform;
• determining by the controller, based on a difference between the second rotary encoder signal and the first rotary encoder signal, a desired linear position of the robot carriage on the carriage track, the desired linear position being a position corresponding to the second rotational position of the milking stall of the rotary milking platform;
• and
• communicating by the controller a position signal to a carriage actuator coupled to the robot carriage and the carriage track, the position signal causing the carriage actuator to move the robot carriage along the carriage track to the desired linear position in conjunction with the movement of the rotary milking platform.

A method for controlling the position of a robot carriage, comprising:

• receiving by a controller a first rotary encoder signal comprising a number of pulses generated by a rotary encoder at a point in time when a milking stall of a rotary milking platform is located at a first rotational position, the first rotational position corresponding to a starting linear position of a robot carriage on a carriage track positioned adjacent to the rotary milking platform;
• receiving by the controller a second rotary encoder signal comprising a number of pulses generated by the rotary encoder at a point in time when the milking stall is located at a second rotational position;
• determining by the controller, based on a difference in the number of pulses between the second rotary encoder signal and the first rotary encoder signal, a desired linear position of the robot carriage on the carriage track, the desired linear position being a position corresponding to the second rotational position of the milking stall of the rotary milking platform;
• communicating by the controller a position signal to a carriage actuator coupled to the robot carriage and the carriage track, the position signal causing the carriage actuator to move the robot carriage along the carriage track to the desired linear position;
• receiving by the controller an absolute encoder signal corresponding to an actual linear position of the robot carriage on the carriage track;
• determining by the controller a position error based on a comparison of the actual linear position of the robot carriage and the desired linear position of the robot carriage;
• and
• determining by the controller whether the position error exceeds a threshold value.