ARRANGEMENT AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING POSITIONS OF THE TEATS OF A MILKING ANIMAL

摘要

An arrangement is provided for determining positions of the teats of an animal (8) in a milking system (3) comprising a milking stall (5) for housing the animal during milking, a movable robot arm (15) for automatically attaching teat cups (11) to the teats of the animal, and a control device (19) for controlling the movement of the robot arm based on determined positions of the teats of the milking animal. The arrangement comprises light emitting means (25) provided for emitting light pulses towards the udder of the milking animal; a shutter (27) arranged to allow at least one of the light pulses to pass through the shutter in its entirety after having been reflected by the udder of the milking animal and to allow a portion only of at least one of the light pulses to pass through the shutter after having been reflected by the udder of the milking animal; a two-dimensional camera array (26) for detecting the light pulses two-dimensionally after having passed through the shutter; and image processing means (28) for forming a three- dimensional image of the udder of the milking animal from the two-dimensional detections; and for detecting the teats of the milking animal and determining their positions in all three spatial dimensions based on the formed three-dimensional image.