# Designing and Simulating the Control Process of a Feed Pusher Robot Used on a Dairy Farm
## 1 Introduction  
Domestic experience of the technical audit of livestock farms and a review of feeding processes on cattle farms in Europe and the Republic of Belarus have shown that feeding is a money-consuming technological operation. The reason is the high costs of electricity, fuels and lubricants, including wages and other forms of remuneration [1].  
The present research assessed the technological level of milk production on livestock farms. The analysis showed that the cost of 1 L of milk in Russia is 67 rulbles on average. It varies from 56 to 81 rulbles, depending on the fat content and the type of packaging used, while the cost of 1 L of milk in the Netherlands, Germany, and other EU countries is about 1 Euro. Considering the exchange rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, it corresponds to 88 rulbles. In turn, the average level of wages of farmworkers in Russia is not higher than 37 thousand rulbles. However, according to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the employer pays a labor tax of about 43%. Thus, hiring one farmworker costs about 53,000 rulbles per month [2].  
However, the level of costs associated with personnel recruitment in European countries has a significant difference, which radically affects the cost of farm production. For example, farm wages in the Netherlands, Germany, and England are about 3000 euros on average. For example, the taxable base in Germany includes:  
- medical treatment insurance--15.5%, of which the employer contributes 7.3%;  
- medical care insurance--1.7% of monthly wages;  
- pension insurance--19.9% of monthly gross wages, of which the employer pays 10%;  
- insurance against unemployment--2.8% of monthly gross wages.  
Thus, in terms of the ruble equivalent, the cost of hiring one farmworker is 321,552 rulbles per month for an employer in Germany, including tax, which is six times more than in the Russian Federation. This fact confirms the relevance of robotization of technological processes [3, 4, 5].  
Ongoing research proves the effectiveness of using robotic tools. For example, milking robots can separate non-marketable milk into a separate tank, dispense concentrates proportionally to the milk yield of each animal, perform cyclic operations at a specified time and provide a protocol with a report on the work undertaken. All this minimizes the share of manual labour.  
After analyzing the study results of feeding processes on farms, the authors have found that the feed distribution frequency equaling three or more times a day increases the interest of animals and the number of approaches to the feed table for feed consumption. This, in turn, increases the level of daily feed consumption of animals. However, the distribution of the feed mixture several times a day is a costly operation [6].  
[PERSON] and [PERSON] et al. stated that cattle tend to sort the components of the feed mixture in favor of energetically valuable compound feeds with high palatability. At the same time, animals tend to neglect bulky feeds, such as silage and hay, which are the main source of fiber [7].  
The present study is devoted to developing an inexpensive feed pusher robot with a screw working body and a dispenser for recurrent application of energy-dense compound feeds or mineral additives, while servicing the feed table [8; 9; 10].  
The developed robot can serve as a tool for carrying out cyclic manipulations on the feed table, providing an increase in animals' interest in feed, and dosing of energy compound feed or mineral supplements repeatedly during each feeding cycle, which will prevent cases of increased feed consumption [11; 12; 13; 14; 15; 16; 17; 18].  
The installed dispenser of feed additives with an automatic performance control system can provide individual feeding modes for each group of animals [19; 20; 21; 22; 23; 24].