JP2000004703A - Automatic milking apparatus and method for detecting nipple position - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] (with correction) [PROBLEMS] To quickly and accurately detect the position of a constantly changing nipple. In a step S3, a teat cup is cleaned and gripped, and in a step S4, a robot hand of the SCARA robot is moved from an origin position to immediately below a previously measured nipple. In step S5, the image of the nipple is captured by the left and right stereo cameras, and in step S6, the corresponding nipple is searched from the images of the nipple registered in advance. In step S7, the position of the left and right images, that is, three-dimensional position information to be obtained by calculating the parallax is obtained.
In step S9, the robot hand is driven based on the position information in step S8, and the teat cup is moved immediately below an arbitrary nipple to approach the same, and in step S10, accurate distance information is obtained from the distance information of three points of the fine sensor. The position information of the nipple is calculated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic milking apparatus for milking dairy cows and the like and a method for detecting a milking position.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 8-131002 discloses that a nipple of a milking animal is scanned with a slit-shaped laser beam or ultrasonic wave to detect its position, and a milking machine (hereinafter referred to as a milking machine) An automatic milking apparatus for mounting a teat cup on a teat is disclosed.

[0003]

According to the above prior art, as shown in FIG. 5, a teat is stored while updating the teat position measurement information detected by the scanner 56 when the teat cup 50 is mounted on the teat. Position update recording means 8
6, and after the detection of the nipple by the rough sensor 55, the teat cup 50 is stored on the nipple position update recording means 86 based on the entire nipple position information as the previous success data.
Is controlled, and if it is impossible to attach the teat cup 50 to the nipple by this control, the linking means 8
In step 1, the nipple position detecting operation of the scanner 56 is newly performed, and then the cooperative operation of raising the teat cup 5 is performed.

[0004] However, since the milking target is a live dairy cow, it is difficult to mechanically forcibly fix it. Naturally, the position of the nipple changes every moment. Therefore, there is a strong demand for an automatic milking apparatus to instantaneously detect the position of the nipple with increased frequency.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an automatic milking apparatus and a milking position detecting method capable of quickly and accurately detecting the position of a constantly changing nipple.

[0006]

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above problems and achieve the object, the automatic milking apparatus of the present invention has the following arrangement. That is, in an automatic milking apparatus that attaches a milking machine to the nipple of a milking animal moved to a predetermined milking place and milks, a rough sensor near the lower part of the milking animal and a fine sensor near the milking machine. The sensors were arranged respectively.

The nipple position detecting method of the automatic milking apparatus according to the present invention has the following features. That is, a method for detecting a milking position of an automatic milking device that mounts a milking device on a nipple of a milking animal moved to a predetermined milking place and milks the milking device. The breast pump is moved to the nipple based on the image information taken in from the rough sensor, and accurate position information is detected by a fine sensor arranged near the breast pump.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a view of the entire automatic milking apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention as viewed from below. FIG. 2 is a detailed view of the robot hand shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is a control block diagram of the automatic milking apparatus of the present embodiment.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the automatic milking apparatus of the present embodiment is disposed between two milking animals, and has a SCARA robot 1, a robot hand 2, a teat cup 3, and a stereo camera 4. .

The SCARA robot 1 has a four-axis robot arm 2 rotatably and swingably mounted. Left and right stereo cameras 4a and 4b as rough sensors are attached to the distal end of the robot hand 2. The stereo cameras 4a and 4b are provided on both sides of the distal end of the robot hand 2 around the teat cup 3, and detect the positional information of the nipple 5 of the milking animal 6 such as a cow. Various optical parameters such as focus and field of view are set in the stereo camera 4 so that all the nipples can be collectively taken from near the lower part of the nipple 5 of the milking animal 6 when image information of the nipple 5 is taken. ing.

At the distal end of the robot hand 2, there is provided a cup holding mechanism for holding the teat cup 3 from a teat cup holder attached to the main body of the SCARA robot 1. In the cup gripping mechanism, three distance sensors 7a to 7c (for example, laser beam projection type sensors) are arranged in the radial direction of the teat cup as fine sensors, and these are optical axes projected from the distance sensors 7a to 7c. Are arranged at 120 ° intervals so as to converge at one point. 6a ~
6d is the leg of the milking animal 6.

The teat cup 3 is connected to a milking hose (not shown), and is mounted on the nipple to perform milking.

As shown in FIG. 4, the entire operation sequence of the SCARA robot 1 is controlled by a host computer 10. The host computer 10 includes a receiver 9 for reading an ID number transmitted from an ID transmitter 8 attached to each milking animal 6 to identify the milking animal 6 that has entered the milking place.

Next, a method of automatically attaching the teat cup 3 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 to the nipple 5 will be described.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a method of mounting the teat cup.

As shown in FIG. 3, when the process is started,
In step S1, the SCARA robot 1 receives an instruction from the host computer 10 that controls the entire sequence, and the milking animal 6 is moved from the waiting place to the milking place through the gate.

In step S2, the host computer 1
0 reads an ID number transmitted from an ID transmitter attached to each milking animal 6 to identify the milking animal 6 that has entered the milking place, and reads the measured data of the milking animal 6 concerned. Load into memory.

In step S3, the teat cup 3 is cleaned and gripped. In step S4, the robot hand 2 of the SCARA robot 1 is moved from the origin to a position immediately below the previously measured nipple 5.

In step S5, the left and right stereo cameras 4a and 4b capture images of the nipple 5 (four in the case of dairy cows). In step S6, the corresponding nipple 5 is extracted from the previously registered nipple image. Search. That is,
The position of the image of the left camera 4a corresponding to the image is determined by the normalized image correlation operation, and the position of the corresponding image of the image of the right camera 4b is determined.

In step S7, the position of the left and right images, that is, three-dimensional position information to be obtained by calculating the parallax is obtained.

In step S8, the position information obtained in step S7 is converted into coordinates in the robot coordinate system. In step S9, the robot hand 2 is driven based on the position information in step S8, and the teat cup 3 is moved right below the nipple 5 to approach the same. In step S10, the three points of the fine sensors 7a to 7c are set. The exact position information of the nipple 5 is calculated from the distance information.

In step S11, the SCARA robot 1 is controlled to attach the teat cup 3 and the robot hand 2
Remove the teat cup 3 from.

In step S12, it is determined whether or not the teat cups 3 have been attached to all the nipples 5. When the attachment has been completed (YES in step S12), the operation sequence from step S1 is performed on the next cow. Is started, and if the mounting is not completed (NO in step S12), the process returns to step S3.

It should be noted that the present invention can be applied to modifications or alterations of the above embodiment without departing from the spirit thereof.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to quickly and accurately detect and accurately control the nipple of a dynamic milking animal and mount the milking machine.

[0027]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a view of an entire automatic milking apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention as viewed from below.

FIG. 2 is a detailed view of the robot hand shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a method of mounting a teat cup.

FIG. 4 is a control block diagram of the automatic milking apparatus of the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an outline of a conventional automatic milking apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 scala robot 2 robot hand 3 teat cup 4a, 4b stereo camera 5 nipple 6 milking animal 7 fine sensor

Claims (14)

[Claims] 1. An automatic milking apparatus for milking by attaching a milking machine to a nipple of a milking animal moved to a predetermined milking place, wherein a rough sensor is provided near a lower portion of the milking animal's nipple. An automatic milking device characterized by disposing fine sensors in the vicinity. 2. The automatic milking apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the rough sensor is arranged on a robot arm that grips and moves the breast pump and is mounted on a nipple. 3. The automatic milking apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the rough sensor includes at least two stereo cameras. 4. The fine sensor according to claim 1, wherein the fine sensor includes a plurality of distance sensors.
The automatic milking apparatus according to any one of the above. 5. The automatic milking apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image information of the nipple is stored in advance as a database for each milking animal. 6. A method according to claim 5, wherein image information corresponding to the previously registered nipple image information is searched from the image information captured by each of the stereo cameras by a normalized image correlation operation. An automatic milking device as described. 7. The automatic milking apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the three-dimensional position information of the nipple is calculated from the parallax of the image information taken in the stereo camera. 8. A method for detecting a milking position of an automatic milking apparatus for milking by attaching a milking machine to a nipple of a milking animal moved to a predetermined milking place, comprising: A rough sensor is arranged, and the breast pump is moved to the nipple based on image information taken from the rough sensor, and accurate position information is detected by a fine sensor arranged near the breast pump. Milking position detection method for automatic milking device. 9. The method for detecting a milking position of an automatic milking apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the rough sensor is arranged on a robot arm that grips and moves the breast pump and is mounted on a nipple. . 10. The method for detecting a milking position of an automatic milking apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said rough sensor comprises at least two stereo cameras. 11. The method for detecting a milking position of an automatic milking apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said fine sensor comprises a plurality of distance sensors. 12. The method for detecting a milking position of an automatic milking apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the image information of the nipple is stored in advance as a database for each milking animal. . 13. The image processing apparatus according to claim 12, wherein information corresponding to the pre-registered nipple image information is searched from the image information captured by the respective stereo cameras by a normalized image correlation operation. Milking position detection method for automatic milking equipment. 14. The method for detecting a milking position of an automatic milking apparatus according to claim 13, wherein three-dimensional position information of the nipple is calculated from a parallax of the image information captured by the stereo camera.