Autonomous System of TMR (Total Mixed Ration) Feed Feeding Robot for Smart Cattle Farm

• Published in: International journal of precision engineering and manufacturing Vol. 24; no. 3; pp. 423 - 433
• Main Authors: Bae, Jongho, Park, Sungho, Jeon, Kwangwoo, Choi, Jae Yeon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Seoul Korean Society for Precision Engineering 01.03.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Barns; Cattle; Cattle industry; Engineering; Feeding; Feeds; Houses; Industrial and Production Engineering; Livestock; Materials Science; Radio frequency identification; Regular Paper; Robots; Autonomous system; Total mixed ration (TMR); Sensor fusion; Feed feeding; Smart cattle farm
• ISSN: 2234-7593; 2005-4602
• DOI: 10.1007/s12541-022-00742-y

In this paper, we introduce an efficient feeding system by developing a Total Mixed Ration (TMR) feeding robot considering the livestock environment for feeding the most important the cattle industry as the first stage of smart farm. In the domestic sheep cattle industry, the proportion of small farms nationwide is high. In the case of large farms, efficient feeding is efficiently provided through the operation of stationary equipment. However, the efficiency and productivity of the robot are improved by supplying feed while driving a portable small TMR with a capacity of 1–2 tons in the case of small farms. To this end, a robot that recognizes the environment in the livestock cowshed was developed by attaching a LiDAR and camera that can recognize the environment to the TMR feeding robot. In particular, it is composed of a system that can know the current location of the house by reading the tag installed in the house by installing the RFID inside the robot. Through RFID and tag information, the user can identify the robot's current location in the livestock barn and provide other types of feed to livestock for each cowshed. In the future, smart cattle farm will develop a system that systematically and conveniently manages the feeding, pathology, and environment of livestock by utilizing the 4th industrial revolution technology represented by technologies such as ICT, IoT, Robot, and AI.