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As part of a large overall farm-automation project, an autonomous cow-milking robot system is under development [1,2]. The system will be able to milk cows fully automatically, e.g., without any help from human beings. This paper will focus on the milking-cups connection strategy and on the control of a robot arm for attaching the milking-cups to the teats of the cow. The robot arm was especially developed for this system. The location of the cow's teats is monitored by an especially designed ultrasonic sensor system. Using experimental data, a model of the robot arm has been derived for simulation purposes. With the aid of this model, a control system to control the robot arm has been developed. Implemented in the actual system, the milking-cup connection strategy, consisting of an approach, a capture and a lock mode, and the control system performed well. |
