A robot in the barn
10. nov 2008 07:00
For hundreds of years, people have dreamed about having robots to do tiresome, strenuous chores. That dream is now becoming a reality in 200 Norwegian barns.
Being a dairy farmer can be very hard work. Cows have to be fed and milked several times a day. Dairy farmers have to check that the milk is good, and that all the cows are healthy. They also have to muck out the manure to be sure the cows live in a nice, clean barn. Being a farmer can include a lot of very dirty work.
Never any time off
All this takes time, and farmers often work 12 to 14 hours a day. Since cows don't take weekends or holidays off, farmers can't take time off either. No wonder so many farmers would like a bit of help in the barn. They need helpers that can work early and late without getting tired or sloppy. Not many humans have that kind of stamina. On that account, more and more farmers are getting help from milking robots.
Super memory
In films, robots are often like some sort of super intelligent metal people, and some of them have X-ray vision or laser eyes. Milking robots look more like a car wash machine than a person. They are no smarter than an ordinary computer, but they know pretty much everything about the cows in the barn.
Foto: SCANPIXEvery cow has a computer chip around its neck, almost like the ski pass you wear when downhill skiing. Every time a cow wants to eat, it has to go through a gate operated by a milking robot. The robot reads the chip and checks to see how long it has been since the cow was milked. If it has been quite a while, the robot milks the cow before it opens the gate. Cows that have just been milked are allowed through immediately.
Laser eyes and robotic arms
Even though a milking robot may look a bit boring, it has laser eyes and one of the world's best robotic arms. Using a camera and two laser beams, the robotic arm locates the cow's udder. Then it washes each teat with warm water before milking the cow swiftly and carefully.
Makes life a bit easier
With the help of the computer chips, the robot keeps track of how often each individual cow is milked, how much milk it gives, and how often it eats. If a cow gets sick, eats too little or has problems with a teat, the robot lets the farmer know. Thus milking robots make life a bit easier for people and animals alike.
Robot = hard work
A robot is a machine that can be programmed or taught to do various jobs. The first modern robot was invented some 50 years ago. It was actually just a huge arm, and was used in a factory to lift metal parts.
Nowadays, there are many different kinds of robots, and they do different kinds of jobs. The word 'robot' comes from the Czech word robota, meaning hard work. That is very appropriate, because most robots are used to do hard, monotonous or dangerous work. For example, robots are used by the military to destroy dangerous bombs, but most often they are used in factories. They do heavy lifting, paint cars, weld steel and do other jobs that humans can't or won't do.
Published in 'Nysgjerrigper' no. 4/08
Translated by Linda Sivesind
Last modified: 10.11.2008