Retrofit a robot

They’ve done it – a robotic milker that can be retrofitted to work with a rotary platform and keep pace with a “normal milking speed”.

And it’s been a small Kiwi team made up of a couple of farmers, a human resource specialist and engineers that have cracked it – they’ve managed to produce what’s been viewed as the holy grail of the New Zealand dairy industry.

While it’s not ready for sale yet it’s reached proof of concept stage and was unveiled recently.
Exactly how much it will cost hasn’t been determined yet but as a benchmark it will be more affordable than a voluntary robotic milking system, particularly when the cost is compared on the basis of the number of animals that can be milked in a 24-hour period.

Using the robot farmers will be able to retain their current grazing systems and batch milk cows.
Nelson-based farmer and LIC chair Murray King, Waikato dairy recruitment specialist John Fegan and Fonterra’s chair-elect John Wilson are the three who had the good idea seven years ago that brought them together at a pizza bar in Hamilton.

Fegan, seeing how farmers were battling to recruit and then manage the growing requirement for staff as conversions soared and herd sizes grew, knew revolutionary changes to the industry were needed. Hours and hours were being spent in farm dairies “swinging cups” and it made sense that automating the process could free up staff and managers to do other important tasks that couldn’t be mechanised.
“I’d been speaking to John and Murray separately about it because they were both thinking the same things and so we got together and formulated a plan,” he said.

After a few false starts at turning the idea into reality they came across South Island-based firm, Scott Technology, a company specialising in the design and manufacture of automated production and process machinery. They had been grappling with the same idea but had been coming at it purely from an engineering perspective.

“We needed the engineering and automation nous and they needed practical farmer input,” Fegan said.
Wilson, Fegan and King formed themselves into a company called Milktech and in 2008 set up a heads of agreement with Scott Technology forming a joint venture company, Scott Milktech.

Initially the design and prototype work was done on a cow dummy at Scott Technology’s premises in Christchurch but they all quickly realised that to make the advances needed they had to practice on real cows. And so the engineers moved their laboratory to a real farm dairy, one owned by the partnership Wilson and his family are involved in at Rangitata.

Top secret

It’s meant clandestine operations, working late at night on the prototype and fitting in trial-sized milkings between those of the 1600 cows on the property. Staff on the farm were sworn to secrecy and the enquiring eyes of sales reps and tanker drivers kept at bay.

The robot combines moving arm automation of the type already used in places like the car and meat industry with innovative optics that help guide the “grippers” which hold the cups.

Scott Milktech project engineer Tom Glover describes the optics as “time of flight” or 3D so the camera can let the computer that drives the robotic arm know where the teat is spatially.

It has to be able to watch it throughout the attachment or cupping process as the cow is likely to move and shift about in the bail.

But the unique thing about the system is that although the base of the robot is stationary the arm and head where the grippers hold the cups follow the cow around, attaching the cups as the turnstile rotates just as a person would. That means the turnstile continues to go round and allows large herds to be milked at close to the rate they would be if a person was on the cups on station.

Glover said the robot currently takes around 14 seconds to attach all four cups so it’s able to milk around 257 cows/hour. But already technicians are frequently getting that time down, making it even more comparable with a human operator. The beauty is that it can sustain that rate for hour upon hour and won’t get tired, need to take a break or answer the phone.

The speed and ability to keep the platform moving is a significant point of difference from voluntary robotic milking systems already available either as boxes or with a platform. Farmers can maintain their current systems, simply replacing a person at cups on.

Unique too is the robotic system’s ability to be retrofitted to an existing farm dairy with only slight modifications. An innovative tail deflector diverts the cow’s tail and holds it out of the way so the camera can see the udder clearly.

Glover said the system will work with any milking plant and can’t see why it wouldn’t fit with any electronic cow management system.

The Wilsons have Protrack fitted in the farm dairy and the robotic system links in to it, storing information it’s recorded on the cow’s first visit such as the height of the udder from the platform and position of the teats.

In subsequent visits as the cow comes round towards the robot, the electronic identification (EID) reader transmits a signal to the robot’s computer telling it which cow is coming up.

The pre-recorded information from the first visit allows the arm to get into position quickly.

Once it picks up the cups the vacuum is activated and the camera sets to work finding the exact location of teats given she’s unlikely to be standing in exactly the same position as last time.

Throughout the development phase the technicians have worked with a group of around 20 cows run as a separate herd and milked after the main herd mid-morning and in the evening. The cows patiently let the technicians work on the robot and appear unfazed by its whirring mechanical noises and movements under their back legs.

Farmer input

Wilson’s brother Rob is Rangitata Dairies farm manager and has provided the interface between the technicians and what’s needed practically. He said because the robot is predictable and does the same thing every time the cows adapt and settle in quickly.

Glover said having the input of farmers and spending as much time as he and the other technicians have on the farm over the past two years meant they had a good understanding of cow behaviour and the realities of what’s going on in the farm dairy. As part of the Scott Milktech project the technicians have met regularly with the Milktech trio forming a technical steering committee that’s been able to work through engineering issues and how to incorporate the needs of farming practicalities.
Fegan said the process had taken a lot of time and investment.

“But we kept telling ourselves if it was easy someone else would have already done it by now,” he said.
The benefits of automated milking would extend beyond simply replacing a farm dairy assistant or cutting work loads of junior staff. Fegan said typically it’s not until herd size rises beyond 1000 cows that the manager is really able to fully step out of the milking roster.

“The robot helps get those higher level staff out of the milking roster too and lets them get on with the planning and monitoring jobs that really add value to the business.”

He points out that the robot won’t create a “lights out” milking operation but would allow someone like the farm or herd manager to be working in the farm dairy office, keeping one eye out for alerts on the machine, rather than being totally committed to the physical milking process.

The joint venture company was now in commercial discussions with parties who have expertise in delivery and service on farm and further announcements on the next stage will follow.

The group has worked with the aim of making payback less than five years for farmers taking on the technology.