Robotics in Animal Husbandry

Pashu Sandesh, 24 May 2021

¹Priya Chouksey, ¹Dr. Dhananjai Singh, ¹M. S. Baghel, ¹Dr. Alka Singh, ¹Amrita Tiwari,  ²Dr. Ajay Rai

¹Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Sidhi, JNKVV, Jabalpur (MP)

²College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, NDVSU, Jabalpur (MP)

Livestock operations are becoming more efficient with new high-tech gadgets. This includes new products and technology available for cattle, dairy, pork, and poultry operations. As consumers continue to demand better animal welfare and improved sustainability across the livestock sector, new innovations are emerging that enable producers to monitor herd health in real-time, prevent disease outbreaks, and optimize nutrition. Nevertheless, the growing population, rise of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and new developments in robotics have caused the world of livestock management to explode with innovation.

Robotics: Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural depositions, manufacture and application of robots. Robotics brings together several very different engineering areas and skills. Robotics is related to the science of electronics, Engineering, mechanics, mechatronics, and software.

Livestock Robotics is the newest development in the area of automation and robotics for livestock production. It improves the life of farmers and animals. Combined with extensive knowledge and experience in design, sensing, automation, robotics and the conditions in the livestock husbandry, makes the life of animal easy and compatible.

Milking robot: Robotic milking is an important link in the food chain defined as “from grass to glass”. Advantages of Robotic Milking are – 

• Elimination of labour - The farmer is freed from the milking process and associated rigid schedule, and labour is devoted to the supervision of animals, feeding, etc.
• Milking consistency – The milking process is consistent for every cow and every visit and is not influenced by different persons milking the cows. The four separate milking cups are removed indi-vidually, meaning that an empty quarter does not stay attached while the other three are finishing, resulting in less threat of injury. The newest models of automatic milkers can vary the pulsation rate and vacuum level based on milk flow from each quarter.
• Increased milking frequency – The milking frequency may increase to three times per day, however typically 2.5 times per day is achieved. This may result in less stress on the udder and increased comfort for the cow, as on average less milk is stored. Higher frequency milking increases milk yield per cow, however much of this increase is water rather than solids.

Poultry Patrol Robot: The poultry Patrol Robot is an autonomous robot designed for use in poultry barns to improve animal welfare and cut down on a producer’s need to constantly walk the barns doing surveillance.

The robot could also detect disease through other methods like feather discolouration, missing feathers, burns on their breasts and even respiratory issues via audio recording. “If a bird is coughing due to a respiratory issue all of a sudden you have a robot that can immediately say there’s a biohazard in the barn,” Poultry Patrol Robot can expand across the entire poultry industry from measuring angular limb deformities for breeders to automatically collecting eggs for the egg industry.