Arrangement and Method for Determining Positions of the Teats of a Milking Animal

Abstract

An arrangement for determining positions of the teats of an animal is provided in a milking system comprising a robot arm for automatically attaching teat cups to the teats of an animal when being located in a position to be milked, and a control device for controlling the movement of the robot arm based on determined positions of the teats of the animal. The arrangement comprises a camera pair directed towards the teats of the animal for repeatedly recording pairs of images, and an image processing device for repeatedly detecting the teats of the animal and determining their positions by a stereoscopic calculation method based on the repeatedly recorded pairs of images, wherein the cameras of the camera pair are arranged vertically one above the other, and the image processing device is provided, for each teat and for each pair of images, to define the position of the lower tip of the teat in the pair of images as conjugate points, and to find the conjugate points along a substantially vertical epipolar line.

1 . An arrangement for determining positions of the teats of a milking animal in a milking system comprising a robot arm for automatically attaching teat cups to the teats of a milking animal when being located in a position to be milked, and a control device for controlling the movement of said robot arm based on determined positions of the teats of the milking animal, said arrangement comprising:
 a first camera pair directed towards the teats of the milking animal when being located in the position to be milked', wherein the first camera pair is provided to repeatedly record pairs of images;   an image processing device provided for repeatedly detecting the teats of the milking animal and determining their positions by a stereoscopic calculation method based on said repeatedly recorded pairs of images, wherein   said image processing device is provided in an initial stage to determine the absolute position of a teat of the milking animal in a coordinate system of the milking system; and   said image processing device is provided, in a later stage when the robot arm is close to attach a teat cup to the teat of the milking animal, to repeatedly determine the position of the teat of the milking animal relative to the robot arm or the teat cup, wherein   said the position of the teat of the milking animal relative to the robot arm or the teat cup is more exact than said absolute position.   
   
   
       2 - 82 . (canceled)