WO2000013496A1

WO2000013496A1 - Animal stall with animal inoperable gates

Info

Publication number: WO2000013496A1
Application number: PCT/SE1999/001504
Authority: WO
Inventors: Hans Martin SJÖLUND
Original assignee: Alfa Laval Agri Ab
Priority date: 1998-09-04
Filing date: 1999-09-01
Publication date: 2000-03-16
Also published as: SE9802993L; SE9802993D0; SE515166C2; AU5894099A

Abstract

An animal stall for lactating animals has gate means (7, 8) for letting an animal in and/or out of the stall, motor means (9, 10) for opening and closing said gate means, and control means comprising manually activatable means. The manually activatable means activates said control means for manual opening and/or closing of said gate means. According to the invention, the opening and closing of the gate means can be performed by an operator accompanying an animal, but the manually activatable means available for the operator are such that an animal is unable to use them. The invention is particularly useful in connection with loose housing cattle barns.

Description

ANIMAL STALL WITH ANIMAL INOPERABLE GATES

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an animal stall provided with gate means for letting an animal in and out of the stall, motor means for opening and closing the gate means and control means for controlling the motor means.

Such animal stalls are disclosed in EP-A-0 451 906.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Animal stalls of the type mentioned are used for many purposes when an animal is to be positioned for treatment in some way. Examples are milking cows, in particular for automatic milking installations, hoof treatment, veterinary inspection etc. They are particularly useful when cows are kept in a loose-housing barn.

The gate means may be arranged in different ways, but a very common type has, arranged in line on a long side an entry gate and an exit gate. For convenient handling, there is then often an inspection area or pit at the opposite long side of the stall, from which an operator can perform various operations, and where the animals have no access. From within this area, the operator may then activate control means for opening the gate means. The gate means are provided with motor means, like a pneumatic cylinder, a hydraulic cylinder or some electric motor device, and which can be activated from the pit. This is all very well, provided that the animals willingly present themselves at the gate, for receiving food and/or for being milked. When this is not the case, an operator must fetch the animal and bring it to the gate, which must be open or at this point opened, to be closed once the animal has been brought in into the stall. Unless the animal is very timid and keeps still until the operator has reached the manually activatable means for activating the motor means for closing the gate, the operation would need two operators.

Examples for the need to bring more or less willing animals into a stall are numerous, where this problem is prevalent. One example is in a system where milking is made by means of a robot, and where cows present themselves. Newly calved cows have a very special kind of milk high in proteins and antibodies (colostrum) which must not be mixed with other milk. The same is true with a cow having mastitis. Such cows must be individually treated and their milk collected apart. Therefore, an operator will have to go and find such cows, bring them to the animal stall and enclose them. Further, a new animal will have to be trained and accustomed to e.g. milking equipment, in particular semi-automatic or automatic equipment. In all such cases, a practical solution would be advantageous.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The problems recited and other related problems are solved, according to the invention, by providing in an animal stall for lactating animals as recited, in that the control means for the motor means comprise manually activatable means operable by an human operator present at an animal-allowed position adjacent the stall, but which is animal inoperable through the necessity of activating by using simultaneously more than one means.

Hereby is achieved a great freedom of handling of animals. An operator is no more confined for opening and closing the gate means to operate from a space where animals are not allowed. Particular advantages are obtained when combined with devices where some individual animals are automatically allowed to enter and the animal stall is automatically opened for them, whereas other animals are differently handled. It is for the latter class of animals that a possibility of overriding the automatics and working from the animal allowed space becomes particularly advantageous.

The operator who has brought an animal to the stall and wants it confined may then first open it, bring the animal in and then close it. By not having to leave it open while the animal is fetched, there can be avoided that another animal enters and eats food laid out to entice an animal to enter the stall. Also, even a lively animal will not be given time to exit before the operator activates the closing.

In an embodiment of the invention, the animal inoperable manually operable means comprise a plurality of means for activating said motor means only by simultaneous activation. The faculty of man exceeds that of animals in this respect.

The said plurality of means for activating may comprise touching means arranged on opposite sides of a portion of the stall. In particular arranged in such a direction and/or position (like vertical), such that it cannot be activated by an animal bite, man^'s hand may be used for squeezing, whereas the device is animal inoperable.

In an alternative embodiment, said plurality of means for activating may comprise a pedal means and a push-button. The combination of an upright person's foot and hand can rarely be imitated by a lactating animal.

In another type of embodiment of the invention, the animal inoperable manually operable means may be operable by means of a mobile object available to an operator. The manipulation of movable objects is generally not likely to be operable by animals. and regardless if an operator brings the object with him or it is available when needed, it is something that the operator disposes, but an animal not.

The said mobile object may in some embodiments be a metal or permanent magnet object and the manually activatable means an electromagnetic sensor. Such devices are very useful for the purpose, being little influenced by the environment in for instance stables.

The said electromagnetic sensor may be a sensor for sensing an adjacent presence of a piston in a cylinder which forms a part of said motor means, and that control means may comprise means for detecting a superfluous piston signal coming from sensing the said mobile object brought near by the operator. This gives the advantage that no extra sensors or the like are necessary .

The mobile object may alternatively be a pocketable light source and the manually activatable means a photosensor. This light source may be an ordinary battery-powered lamp or a laser.

The animal stall may be provided with an operation pit unallowed for animals at one long side and said gate means at an opposite side. The inventive opening of the gate means can then be performed on the animal-presence side thereof.

The stall may be provided for performing a milking operation on a cow installed therein and may be provided with a milking robot.

The manually activatable means must not be operable for an animal. It should be kept in mind that animals may pick up often quite extreme skills, and push-button devices, even quite complicated ones, will not serve. What is needed is to use faculties that the operator has and an animal of the kind contemplated has not. No lactating animal has the anatomic faculties of man. However, the demands are less difficult to fill than for animals as monkeys.

It is preferred that the operator should be able nevertheless to operate the gate function with one hand, leaving the other hand to manoeuver the animal.

In a first embodiment type, the animal inoperable manually operable means uses the human faculty of simultaneity, like gripping an object from two sides, in the simplest embodiment comprising two push-buttons mounted on opposite sides of a portion of the stall, or simultaneous activation of a pedal means and a push-button .

In a second embodiment type, the animal inoperable manually operable means is operable by means of an object which the operator brings with himself. It may be a piece of metal, to be brought to a metal sensor, a small permanent magnet brought near a sensor of magnetic field, or a pocketable light source with which to activate a photosensor.

In a particularly advantageous embodiment of the second type, where the animal stall is provided with motor means in the form of cylinders, either pneumatic or hydraulic, and where a piston end position is sensed by a metal or magnetic sensor at the cylinder end, the object brought by the operator is laid against such a sensor at the end opposite to the actual position of the piston. The obvious "error" encountered by a computer in the control means will then be interpreted as a n order for gate activation.

The animal stall may be arranged in a loose-housing barn, but also be used in an open field. It may be combined with an operation pit. In some cases, there are means for milking a cow arranged in the animal stall. In other cases, the animal stall is arranged for other purposes, like hoof trimming, insemination, hygienic or veterinary treatment or the like. DRAWING SUMMARY

The invention shall now be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which

Fig. 1 illustrates an animal stall with a cow entering through an opened entering gate.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic logic circuit for enabling gates by simultaneous activation.

Fig. 3 shows a double-contact animal-inoperable means.

Fig. 4 shows in a perspective view an embodiment with simultaneous activation through a pedal and a push-button.

Fig. 5 shows a motor means in the form of a cylinder, either pneumatic or hydraulic, provided with end position sensors and an exemplary captive but mobile object for its activation.

Fig. 6 shows an embodiment where a mobile object in the form of a pocketable lamp is used as mobile object.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In Fig. 1 is shown a stall 1, which has front, rear and side delimitations, an entrance gate 7 and an exit gate 8. Each is provided with motor means 9 and 10 respectively, which are arranged at a high level for opening and shutting the respective gates. The motor means may be electric motors or hydraulic cylinders, but are preferentially pneumatic cylinders, especially since vacuum is often available under milking conditions. The entrance gate 7 is shown opening for a cow, which was admitted in response to a transponder reader 20, which had been reading a transponder 22 carried by this particular cow. An animal presence sensor 21 is also provided. This stall is also provided with a milking robot schematically shown as 100.

The right long side of the stall 1 is part of a barrier which separates a space where the animals are allowed from another space where the animals are excluded. In this prior art equipment, the gates are maneuvered either by cows and their transponders, or from the animal excluded space, provided for operators, who have there access to manual activating means for controlling the gates independently of the transponder control system.

The motor means 9 and 10 are driven under the control of control means not shown for entering air pressure or vacuum at respective end nipples of the cylinders (not shown). The end positions of the devices 9 and 10 may be sensed by metal or magnetic detectors 11, 12 and 13, 14 respectively, the signals of which are led to respective inputs of the control device (not shown).

In Fig. 2 is shown the principle for a set of first embodiments of manual activation of the gates in an animal inoperable way. The general principle may be stated as using a plurality of activating means which must be activated simultaneously. As shown, there are two logical AND circuits 30 and 35, one for each of the entry and exit gates 7 and 8 (Fig. 1). The entry gate will be activated for entry when and only when the two contact devices 36 and 37 are simultaneously activated, activating AND gate 35, and will close as soon as at least one of them is broken. Similarly, the logical AND 30 will activate when and only when contacts 31 and 32 are made. The respective contact pairs are arranged such that it is impossible for an animal to make the two of the pair. This can be obtained in several ways. A first way is schematically demonstrated in Fig. 3, where the contacts are materialized in the form of two pressure contacts are arranged on opposite sides of a portion of the stall at a place easily reachable for an operator, who may either grasp over the two with the palm and fingers of one hand or use the thumb on one side and the fingers on the other side. In particular if mounted on vertical or near vertical sides of the stall portion, no animal would be able to touch both with the mouth. Fig. 4 shows another possibility in the form of a pedal 42 and a press-button contact 43 at easy reach for the hand of the operator. The pedal should be mounted slightly raised from the floor for easy cleaning of the floor.

It is also possible to utilize sensors already present for other purposes, together with a mobile object which may be easily available. An example of this is demonstrated in Fig. 5, where the cylinder 10 (also in Fig. 1) is provided with end- sensor metal or magnetic sensors 13 and 14, one at each end, and where the sensing of the presence of the piston is sensed by a respective endpoint sensor. A movable object in the form of a magnet 50 is mounted in a chain 51 and may be brought near to that one of the sensors which does not sense the presence of the piston, which is at the other end. (If the sensors are instead sensible to metal per se, the magnet may be exchanged for a suitable metal piece.)

Both sensors will thus give a presence signal, which signals may be led to an AND gate as in Fig. 2. In other embodiments, the same function may be taken over by a computer.

The use of a movable object for permitting an operator to activate the opening and closing of the gate means may be varied in many ways. In Fig. 6 is shown the case when the movable object is a pocketable light source 60, with which the operator directs a light ray 62 to a photosensor 61. The photosensor cannot be activated by an animal. - There are many possibilities for arranging that the operator may use a movable object brought with him, and which will enable him to activate the gate means in an animal inoperable way. A push-button in a deep hole may be arranged, which may be activated by means of a pencil or similar long, slim object normally available to human operators but animal safe.

The invention represents a solution to a problem which must function in an environment which is often extreme, both because it is extremely corrosive, but also because fluid and more or less solid pollutions are common and will often have to be hosed away with water to obtain tolerable hygiene and comfort for man and animals. Therefore, the use of locks and closing systems used for office doors or the like, for instance various code locks, magnetic cards, smart cards, bar code readers, fingerprint and eye iris readers must be considered as near useless for the purposes of the invention, which relates to another problem than the separation between people with access and people with denied access. The heart of the present invention is instead to exclude animals as such from unauthorized access, making human presence and activity necessary for an activation and an overriding of the exclusion to access for an animal.

It should be clear for the man of the art that a multitude of variations are possible within the scope as defined by the following patent claims. It should be equally clear that the invention may be applied not only to cows but to all kinds of lactating animals like horses, goats, sheep or buffaloes.

Claims

1. An animal stall for lactating animals, provided with gate means for automatic letting an animal into the stall from an animal-allowed space and/or lettint the animal out of the stall, motor means for opening and closing said gate means and control means for controlling said motor means, said control means comprising manually activatable means for activating said control means for manual opemng and/or closing of said gate means, characterized in that said manually activatable means are within reach for a human operator present within said animal-allowed space and adjacent the stall, but which are animal inoperable by necessitating a simultaneous use of at least two different means..

2. An animal stall according to claim 1, characterized in that the animal inoperable manually operable means comprise a plurality of means for activating said motor means only by simultaneous activation.

3. An animal stall according to claim 2, characterized in that said plurality of means for activating comprise touching means arranged on opposite sides of a portion of the stall.

4. An animal stall according to claim 2, characterized in that said plurality of means for activating comprise a pedal means and a push-button.

5. An animal stall according to claim 1, characterized in that the animal inoperable manually operable means is operable by means of a mobile object available to an operator.

6. An animal stall according to claim 5, characterized in that the mobile object is a metal or permanent magnet object and that the manually activatable means is an electromagnetic sensor.

7. An animal stall according to claim 6, characterized in that the said electromagnetic sensor is a sensor for sensing an adjacent presence of a piston in a cylinder which forms a part of said motor means, and that said control means comprises means for detecting a superfluous piston signal coming from sensing the said mobile object brought near by the operator.

8. An animal stall according to claim 5, characterized in that the mobile object is a pocketable light source and that the manually activatable means is a photosensor.

9. An animal stall one according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the animal stall is provided with an operation pit unallowed for animals at one long side and said gate means at an opposite side.

10. An animal stall according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that it is provided for performing a milking operation on a cow installed therein.

11. An animal stall according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that it is provided with an animal related apparatus for performing an animal related operation such as milking and/or teat cleaning.