Japanese to help develop N.Z. robot milker

Press, 3 August 1983, Page 13

Japanese to help develop N.Z. robot milker

By

BRUCE ROSCOE

in Tokyo A Japanese mechatronic engineering company has agreed to jointly develop New Zealand technology for a robot cow-milking system. The technology is reported to have been developed by Ardco, Ltd, of Otorohanga, near Auckland.

According to a front-page report in the Japan Industrial and Manufacturing Newspaper yesterday, the Japanese company, Kohgakusha, of Sapporo, the capital city of the northern island of Hokkaido, has entered into a “business venture arrangement” with Ardco for the development of the system. Mr Kenji Tsukamoto, the managing director of Kohgakusha, said the agreement was reached in talks in Sapporo last month with Mr Paul Kennedy, the

manager of Ardco. Mr Tsukamoto said a contract for the development of the system, which applied to the rotary-shed style of milking, would be signed in Sapporo in December when Mr Kennedy visited with a prototype of his milking device.

The system incorporates a slate onto which teat cups are attached, according to the Japanese newspaper. An arm extending from the slate would connect with a sensor device that detected the cow’s teats. The sensor would relay that information to the teat cups on the slate. The teat cups in response would automatically affix themselves to the teats.

Mr Tsukamoto said Kohgakusha had made the approach to Ardco after seeing a Japanese television programme on the use of

rotary milking sheds in New Zealand.

He said Ardco had developed the concept of the robot mechanism and sought help from Kohgakusha in its commercial development. The concept had won the support of an engineering committee set up under the auspices of the Japanese International Trade and Industry Ministry.

Mr Tsukamoto said the committee, comprising Hokkaido agricultural academics and local body representatives, wished to promote the commercial use of the technology in an effort to make dairying on Hokkaido more efficient. “The project is still in the research and development stage, but we believe it is highly feasible and we expect results in six to 12

months,” he said.

He believed one milking system using the device could be developed for commercial use for about 3.5 million yen ($NZ22,500). Kohgakusha, capitalised at 22 million yen (?NZ42,000) and established in 1981, specialises in numerically controlled machines for factory automation, robotics, and computer systems.

A "successful commercial development of the system could mean huge sales in Japan, though the concept of rotary milking itself will have to be made popular first.

Japan’s dairy herd in 1981, according to official figures, was 2.104 million animals on 105,000 farms, each with an average of 19.9 head. Only a very small number of the farms are believed to be using rotary

systems. Only two Japanese companies market the systems, Nagase Sangyo and Orion, and their sales have not been encouraging. Mr Tsukamoto, however, said representatives of Nagase Sangyo, which has a tie-up with a Swedish company for the marketing of the rotary systems in Japan, were impressed by a video recording of the rotary system in use in New Zealand that Mr Kennedy had brought to Japan last month.

He said Kohgakusha would become subcontractor for the manufacture of the device once it had been perfected.