shows mettle
Robot milker
shows mettle
Overshadowed by foot-and-mouth, the Dairy Event 2001
provided manufacturers with a welcome opportunity to
display their latest wares. Andy Moore reports
DUTCH company Galaxy used this years Dairy Event to provide a UK working demonstration of its Robotic milking system which has been developed over five years.
Marketed by Insentec, the Galaxy Milk Robot employs a hi-tech robotic arm adapted from the manufacturing industry.
Unlike other robotic milking systems, the Galaxy robotic arm uses a camera to scan and record the exact position of cows teats.
This eliminates the need for new co-ordinates to be entered into the computer; the robotic arm and its cluster attachment hand automatically adjusts to different size udders and teats.
Once teat location is memorised, the attachment hand takes clusters individually from a bank at the side of the box which are attached to teats one by one.
Clusters are attached to the two rear teats and then front teats which are washed and dried – a process claimed to stimulate rapid milk let-down.
After the teats are cleaned, fore milk is drained off and clean milk is passed through a conductivity sensor and milk meter into receiver jars.
Because the robotic arm and attachment hand remains outside the box during milking, Galaxy says cows are less stressed and there is little risk of clusters coming loose or falling off.
After milking, clusters are removed from each quarter, disinfected with water at 98C, and placed back in the bank. The system is available in three configurations: A single robot/box for milking 50-70 cows, one robot/two boxes for a 90-110 herd, or a single robot to work with two boxes in parallel for 100-120 cows. Price for a robot and box is about £73,100.
The Galaxy Milk Robot uses a specially adapted robotic arm from the automobile industry to attach and remove clusters.