Patent ID: 8505484

Claim:
A milking robot ( 10 ), comprising: a first link (L 1 ) rotatable around a first axis (x 1 ) to a first angle within a first angle range (α 1 ) via a first joint ( 11 ) acted on by a first joint actuator (A 1 ), a second link (L 2 ) attached to the first link (L 1 ) and rotatable around a second axis (x 2 ) to a second angle within a second angle range (α 2 ) via a second joint ( 12 ) acted on by a second joint actuator (A 2 ), a third link (L 3 ) attached to the second link (L 2 ) and rotatable around a third axis (x 3 ) to a third angle within a third angle range (α 3 ) via third joint ( 13 ) acted on by a third joint actuator (A 3 ), an end effector (E), wherein the first, second and third links (L 1 , L 2 , L 3 ) are rotatable so that the end effector (E) is movable within a three-dimensional workspace (W) of the milking robot ( 10 ), a sensor ( 16 ) configured to sense a position of an object, including a teat of an animal, and a control unit ( 15 ) configured to control the first, second and third joint actuators to move the end effector (E) to the position sensed by the sensor ( 16 ), wherein each position of the end effector (E) within the workspace (W) corresponds to a single combination of the first, second and third angles, and wherein the end effector (E) comprises a center point (p), which defines the position of the end effector (E) ( 14 ) in a control algorithm included in the control unit ( 15 ) and provided for controlling the milking robot ( 10 ).