Patent ID: 8191506

Claim:
A milking system, comprising: a communications bus; and a plurality of different milking system apparatuses each wire-connected to each other via a wire connection to the communications bus, each of the apparatuses comprising i) a device configured to perform a milking-related operation in the milking system, ii) a microprocessor, iii) an error message generating system configured to generate an error message in the event of an error having occurred in the operation of the device, and iv) a communications device configured to transmit the error message, via the wire connection, to the communications bus, the communications bus configured to transmit the error message to all other apparatuses of the milking system connected to the communications bus, the communications device further configured to receive and interpret any error message transmitted by any of the other apparatuses, the error message generated by the error message generating system comprising an information of a nature of the error and an information of a severity of the error, each of the apparatuses being configured to i) evaluate the error message received via the communications bus and determine, based at least on the severity information of the received error message, whether a respective responsive action is appropriate, and ii) when the determination is that a responsive action is appropriate, cause the device of the apparatus to perform the responsive action, wherein the device of a first of said apparatuses is a vacuum source, the device of a second of said apparatuses is a milking machine, the device of a third of said apparatuses is a milking robot, the device of a fourth of said apparatuses is a gate system, the device of a fifth of said apparatuses is milk extraction equipment, the device of a sixth of said apparatuses is a herd management system, the device of a seventh of said apparatuses is a washing machine, the device of an eighth of said apparatuses is a cooling tank, the device of an ninth of said apparatuses is a communications apparatus, and the device of an tenth of said apparatuses is a feeding system, the vacuum source comprising a switch configured to any of switch on, switch off, and switch to a substitute vacuum source, the milking machine comprising a switch configured to switch off milking and to redirect milk, the milking robot comprising a robot arm configured to fetch and attach teat cups, the gate system comprising a control device configured to open and close gates for redirecting a milking animal, the milk extraction equipment comprising a switch configured to apply a vacuum for extracting milk from the milking animal, the herd management system comprising a module configured to adjust any of milking and feeding, the washing machine comprising a device for supplying cleaning fluid, the cooling tank comprising a device for increasing and decreasing temperature, the communications system comprising a device for initiating an alarm, and the feeding system comprising a feed supply device.