US 6,981,467 B2
Construction for automatically milking animals
Alexander van der Lely, Rotterdam (Netherlands); Karel van den Berg, Bleskensgraaf (Netherlands); and Renatus Ignatius Josephus Fransen, Vlaardingen (Netherlands)
Assigned to Lely Enterprises A.G., Zug (Switzerland)
Filed on Sep. 17, 2001, as Appl. No. 9/953,147.
Claims priority of application No. 1016195 (NL), filed on Sep. 15, 2000.
Prior Publication US 2002/0033139 A1, Mar. 21, 2002
Int. Cl. A01J 5/003 (2006.01); A01J 5/00 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 119—14.11 38 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An unmanned vehicle for automatically milking animals that are not in a stall or milking compartment, the vehicle comprising a teat cup, robotic means for connecting said teat cup to a teat of an animal to be milked, a milk reservoir for receiving and storing milk from said animal being milked, conduit means for connecting said teat cup to said milk reservoir, detecting means for continually detecting a location of said animal to be milked, and propulsion means for moving the vehicle into a position at said location to milk said animal, said robotic means, said teat cup, said milk reservoir, said conduit means and said propulsion means being included in the vehicle.