Horizontal Axis Livestock Gate for Automated Milking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing one-way gates for farm animals, particularly in automated milking systems, are expensive, unreliable, and difficult to train animals to use effectively, as they rely on spring-biased vertical axes that can be opened in unintended directions and require costly motorized systems and transponders.
Innovation Solution
A gate design featuring a barrier that pivots about a horizontal axis, allowing animals to push it open in one direction and return to a vertical quiescent position after passage, constructed from inexpensive galvanized steel with tines that contact the animal's back, preventing incorrect opening and using a training method that adjusts the gate's angle to facilitate animal use.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If spring-biased vertical axis barriers are used, then the gate can open in one direction, but the gate can be opened in unintended directions by animals pushing with sufficient force
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the traditional vertical axis pivot to a horizontal axis pivot. This changes the opening mechanism from pushing the barrier sideways against spring bias to pushing the barrier forward to lift it over the animal's back. The horizontal axis rotation transforms the force application direction, making the gate reliably open in the intended direction while preventing opening in unintended directions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a two-dimensional vertical pivot motion to a three-dimensional horizontal axis rotation with vertical lifting component. The barrier rotates about a horizontal axis, causing it to lift upward as the animal pushes forward, creating a motion path in multiple dimensions that ensures one-way operation.
2Extent of automation
If motorized systems with transponders are used, then automated gate opening is achieved, but the system becomes expensive and complex
Solution Approach 1:
The gate system is self-actuating through the animal's own movement. As the animal walks forward, its body weight and motion automatically pivot the barrier about the horizontal axis, lifting it over the back and allowing passage. The system requires no external motors, sensors, or control systems - the animal's natural movement serves as the actuating force.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts and removes the complex motorized opening mechanism and transponder system from the gate design. By eliminating these components entirely and relying on the animal's movement to open the gate, the system achieves automation without the associated complexity and cost.
3Reliability
If spring-biased barriers pivoting about vertical axes are used, then one-way movement is enforced, but the springs wear and require replacement
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the spring-biased mechanical system with a horizontal axis pivot system that uses the animal's own weight and motion as the operating force. This substitution eliminates springs and their associated wear and maintenance requirements, while maintaining the one-way barrier function through gravity and geometry.
4Ease of operation
If the barrier is positioned to contact the animal's head, then the animal can be guided through, but the animal may become frightened or injured
Solution Approach 1:
The horizontal axis pivot creates a three-dimensional motion path where the barrier lifts upward over the animal's back rather than contacting the head. This dimensional change in the opening motion allows guidance through the gate while avoiding harmful contact with the animal's head or body.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The gate is more reliable, cost-effective, and easier to train animals to use, ensuring one-way movement through the gate without the need for transponders or motors, improving the efficiency of animal movement in milking facilities.
Implementation Method 1
a barrier for the animals carried by the support, with the support and barrier arranged for enabling the barrier to turn about a horizontal axis from a quiescent position in only a first direction in response to the animal pushing against the barrier
Implementation Method 2
the animal pushing against the barrier
Implementation Method 3
turns about the horizontal axis in a second, opposite direction, to the quiescent position, after the animal has passed through the barrier
Data Source
AI summary
Cows are milked at a facility including a robotic milker, a pen, a first passage leading from the pen to the milker, and a second passage leading from the milker to the pen. Each passage includes a one-way gate. Each gate includes a barrier that turns about a horizontal axis from a quiescent position in only a first direction in response to the cows pushing against the barrier and turns in the opposite direction about the axis to the quiescent position after each cow has passed through the barrier. The barrier includes plural tines that turn independently of each other about the axis in both directions. In normal operation, the quiescent position of the tines is vertical. For training, the quiescent position of the tines is displaced from the vertical so the tines are above the heads of the animals but below their backs.