Development of a Robotic Milking Cluster System

착유 자동화를 위한 로봇 착탈 시스템

A Robotic milking cluster system with the manipulator for an automatic milking system was designed and built for farmer to work easily and comfortably during milking processing. The cluster system was composed of screws, cams and links for power transmission, DC motors, the Quick Basic one-chip microprocessor, the vision system for image processing, and tea-cups. Software, written in Visual C+ and Quick Basic, combined the function of image capture, image processing, milking cluster control, and control into one control. The unit was made to transfer from four fixed points to four teats with four teat-cups. Performance tests of the cluster unit, the fully integrated system, were conducted to attach and detach the teat-cup on the teat of a artificial cow. The transfer programming provided for a teat-cup milking loop during the system starts and comes back the original fixed point at the manipulator of it for milking. It transferred the teat-cup with a success rate of more than 70%. The average time it took ot perform the milking loop was about 20 seconds.