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Implement for automatically milking a dairy animal

  • US 10,039,259 B2
  • Filed: 07/10/2014
  • Issued: 08/07/2018
  • Est. Priority Date: 09/05/2006
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. An implement for automatically milking a dairy animal, comprising:

  • a milking parlour;

    a milking robot for automatically attaching a teat cup to a teat, the milking robot comprising a robot arm having at least two pivoting joints, a 3D sensor being disposed on an end of the robot arm, which the 3D sensor is configured to observe the teat of the dairy animal and the teat cup, and a robot control unit operatively connected to a 3D sensor,wherein the 3D sensor comprises;

    a radiation source for emitting electromagnetic radiation;

    a receiver comprising a matrix with a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns of receivers configured to receive electromagnetic radiation reflected from the dairy animal and the at least one teat cup;

    a lens for imaging the reflected electromagnetic radiation onto the receiver;

    a sensor control unit;

    wherein the sensor control unit is operatively connected to the radiation source to modulate the electromagnetic radiation, andwherein the sensor control unit is programmed to determine for each of the receivers a phase difference between the emitted and the reflected electromagnetic radiation to calculate distances from the 3D sensor to a plurality of points on the diary animal including the teat and further programmed to calculate distances from the 3D sensor to a plurality of points on the teat cup and transmitting these calculated distances to the control unit;

    wherein the robot control unit is programmed to calculate a mutual distance between the teat cup and the teat and to control motion of the at least two pivoting joints of the robot arm and further to control a longitudinal displacement of the robot arm, on the basis of the calculated mutual distance to move the teat cup to the teat.

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