Patent ID: 7146928

Claim:
An apparatus for milking a dairy cow having an udder with a plurality of teats, said apparatus comprising: a plurality of teatcups adapted to extract milk from the dairy cow; a height adjustment member raising and lowering said plurality of teatcups as a group; a radial positioning member moving said plurality of teatcups as a group in a radial direction relative to said height adjustment member; a tangential adjustment member moving said plurality of teatcups as a group in a orthogonal direction relative to said radial positioning member; a plurality of first positioning arms adapted to raise and lower each of said plurality of teatcups independently of each other of said plurality of teatcups; a plurality of second positioning arms adapted to move each of said plurality of teatcups in a first direction independently of each other of said plurality of teatcups; a plurality of third positioning arms adapted to move each of said plurality of teatcups in a second direction independently of each other of said plurality of teatcups, said second direction being different than said first direction; an alignment sensing component associated with each of said plurality of teatcups, said alignment sensing component sensing when the associated one of said plurality of teatcups is aligned with one of the plurality of teats; and a controller in communication with said sensor, said controller activating said height adjustment member, said radial positioning member, and said tangential positioning member to position said plurality of teatcups generally proximate the plurality of teats; aligning each of said plurality of teatcups with one of the plurality of teats along a line in a first direction using said plurality of second positioning arms; aligning each of said plurality of teatcups with one of the plurality of teats along a line in a second direction using said plurality of third positioning arms;and engaging each of the plurality of teats with one of said plurality of teatcups using said plurality of first positioning arms.