Milking kit maker Boumatic has unveiled a new autonomous scraper that trundles through shed passages sucking up slurry.

The BVS Robot has plenty in common with the recently updated Discovery C2 from Lely, as both collect the waste in an onboard reservoir before jettisoning it into a reception pit at their recharging dock.

Like its rival, it is fitted with a lithium battery pack good for almost 15 hours work in a 24-hour period.

See also: Advice on buying and retrofitting slurry scrapers

However, Boumatic opts to fit a vacuum pump to its machine, allowing it to hoover up the material it is fed by a pair of front-mounted arms.

These protrude outwards from the squat, cylindrical body to direct the slurry towards the central tank inlet, with break-back mechanisms allowing them to work touch-tight with curbs and walls without risking damage.

Suction is lost should the robot pass over slatted floors, in which case the tank begins to empty.

But on a solid concrete deck, it will store up to 350 litres of slurry in the stainless steel tub. This is discharged by reversing the vacuum pump at a dedicated off-load point.

The charging dock will be set up in the same location, as will a water supply to replenish its 70-litre clean tank. In work, this is drizzled from an irrigation sprinkler on the front to moisten material and help break down hard deposits, and it is also used to flush the reservoir once it’s empty.

Laser guidance

As well as setting up the slurry emptying, water filling and battery charging infrastructure, buyers will need someone accredited by Boumatic to create a virtual map of the shed with invisible roaming boundaries.

Within these, the robot uses a laser guidance system to find its way around at a steady speed of 10m/min. And thanks to its stocky design, it should be able to slip underneath barriers 750mm high.

Decent wi-fi coverage is also necessary to allow owners to alter settings such as scraping frequency from a smartphone or tablet.

So, a bit of a faff to set up but, according to Boumatic, this is far outweighed by the benefits of cleaner floors, cleaner cubicles and cleaner udders.