Automatic Cow Health Measurement System in a Milking Robot

摘要

Milking robot offers a unique possibility for dynamic measurements of physiological data. We have worked on automatically measuring health of dairy cows during automatic milking. The measurement system consists of leg health measurement system and a respiration rate measurement. Four strain gauge scales were installed into a milking robot in order to measure the weight of each leg separately and a laser distance sensor was placed next to the robot in order to measure the radial movement of cow's bodysurface. The sensors were connected to an amplifier and the data was collected into a PC using a dedicated computer program. Three video cameras were installed to observe the system and the data was recorded digitally. From the data the dynamic weight or load of each leg and the respiration rate of the cow can be measured. The average weight, the weight variation of each leg, the total weight, the number of kicks and steps, the frequency of kicks and the total time in the milking robot can be calculated. The data can be used for automatic detection of leg problems and it is highly probable that the symptoms of heat stress can be detected as increased respiration rate.