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 body surface. 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.