Automation in dairy farms: a robotic milking system

It is only recently that automation has been introduced into agriculture. In many dairy farms, computer aided control of physiological and sanitary parameters are already used and lead to a productivity increase and the elimination of some tedious operations. In this context, the Research Consortium AUTARI has been developing a prototype of robotic milking system and has carried on researches in order to optimise the use of automatic milking within the farm and to develop the proper interface to other computer aided operations. The developed system includes: the milking box; the milking robot and gripper; an animal identification system; the feeding station and the physiological-sanitary monitoring system. The machine, at the moment in the manufacturing phase, has already been tested in the laboratory and will be installed in an experimental farm in 1997.