Sveaverken's AI-powered robot pushing cattle feed - Trade Farm Machinery

Sveaverken’s AI-powered robot – RoboPusher Nimbo – eliminates the labour-intensive task of manually pushing feed for cattle

Dairy farmers need to ensure their cattle housed in barn environments have optimal amounts of food for all hours in a day to maximise milk production.

But due to the cattle eating from the feed closest to them, they eventually will not be able to reach this feed and therefore will not be able to eat.

This is where someone needs to manually push the feed closer to the fence where the cows are enclosed.

Traditionally, this labour-intensive task may need to be done every few hours – which includes waking up in the middle of the night, no matter what the weather conditions are, to ensure the feed is pushed towards the cows.

However, with Sveaverken’s RoboPusher Nimbo, this labour-intensive and time-consuming task can be done automatically by a robot.

RoboPusher Nimbo

Equipped with numerous ultrasonic sensors to help guide itself in a barn, the artificial intelligence-powered RoboPusher Nimbo pushes the feed by itself.

Also fitted with cameras, the feed pusher uses them as eyes, identifying different barn environments and dynamically adjusting its path based on the obstacles in its way and the cattle’s feed requirements.

“If there’s not enough feed available to the cows the Nimbo will push it closer towards them, and if there’s too much feed, it will move some of it further away from the fence,” Sveaverken vice president of global operations Felix Tian says.

“This ability to adjust to different situations totally eliminates any manual work.”

Thanks to a 1.08m wide body, the feed pusher’s compact design takes up less space in the feeding bays and allows the robot to fit in a small charging station.

Running on battery, the robot is smart enough to return to its charging station after its feed pushing responsibilities are completed. This ensures that it is always at an optimal charge level, so it is ready to go for the next mission.

Depending on how big the barn is, Tian says the Nimbo uses only a small portion of battery during its feed pushing missions.

If it is running low on battery, the RoboPusher can recognise this and move back to the station to charge.

A mobile app also comes with the innovative technology, allowing customers to set feed pushing schedules exactly to their liking.

Customers can use this to receive live barn images, monitor the Nimbo’s perfor- mance and check on their herd at any time.

“We have customers that use the Nimbo to feed push up to 20 times a day,” Tian says.

“The more the feed is pushed, the more the animals intake fresh feed – leading to better milk production.”

Suitability

With most cows being raised in pastures outside, at first glance it may seem like the feed pushing robot wouldn’t be suited to the Australian market.

However, Tian says Sveaverken has done a plethora of research and has concluded that more Australian farmers will consider building barns in the near future.

“Due to climate change and uncertain- ties for milk production, we believe more Australian farmers will look at building barns,” Tian says.

“If they already have a barn, or if they do plan to build one, the RoboPusher Nimbo

will be a great asset in reducing the need for manual feed pushing.”

Although Sveaverken’s technology has mainly been used for cattle, the Swedish company says it can be used for any animal that requires frequent feeding and is housed in a barn environment – including sheep.

The Nimbo is already well established in Europe and Sveaverken believes that its introduction into Australia will be well-received.

Established product

One customer that is already reaping the benefits of the technology is Achim Behrens, a dairy farmer who works alongside his parents at their property on the border of the Netherlands and Germany.

With a herd of approximately 220 cows, Behrens decided to invest in Sveaverken’s RoboPusher Nimbo due to its automative benefits.

Originally facing the challenges of manually pushing feed for the cattle, particularly late in the night, Behrens says the innovative solution has proved to be a game changer.

“Thanks to the feed pushing robot, we no longer have to push feed in the stable in the evening,” Behrens says.

“It also does feed pushing during the night and saves us at least one to one and a half hours of work every day.”

The robot has ensured heifers and lower ranking cows always have access to fresh feed, no matter what time of day, Behrens adds.

In addition to the RoboPusher Nimbo, Sveaverken also offers a wide variety of solutions for cattle management.

One example of this is the MooCollar Bree, a smart collar worn by cows that provides 24/7 monitoring, so farmers know if their cows are behaving abnormally, displaying signs of illness, or breeding.

The automated Sveaverken Brush is another smart product that senses when cows lean on it, and then automatically starts spinning to provide effective grooming.

“We’re also looking to bring in some new products, including a manure robot for barns,” Tian says.

“We’ve seen that the RoboPusher Nimbo has been popular in Europe and New Zealand, and we hope the same can be said for Australia.”

For more information on Sveaverken’s RoboPusher Nimbo and cattle management products, visit www.sveaverken.com

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