WO2010057266A1 - Robot mustering of animals - Google Patents

Robot mustering of animals Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2010057266A1
WO2010057266A1 PCT/AU2009/001517 AU2009001517W WO2010057266A1 WO 2010057266 A1 WO2010057266 A1 WO 2010057266A1 AU 2009001517 W AU2009001517 W AU 2009001517W WO 2010057266 A1 WO2010057266 A1 WO 2010057266A1
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WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
mustering
agent
herd
information
location
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/AU2009/001517
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Peter Corke
Original Assignee
Commonwealth Scientific And Industrial Research Organisation
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Priority claimed from AU2008906041A external-priority patent/AU2008906041A0/en
Application filed by Commonwealth Scientific And Industrial Research Organisation filed Critical Commonwealth Scientific And Industrial Research Organisation
Publication of WO2010057266A1 publication Critical patent/WO2010057266A1/en

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Classifications

    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B25—HAND TOOLS; PORTABLE POWER-DRIVEN TOOLS; MANIPULATORS
    • B25J—MANIPULATORS; CHAMBERS PROVIDED WITH MANIPULATION DEVICES
    • B25J9/00—Programme-controlled manipulators
    • B25J9/16—Programme controls
    • B25J9/1656—Programme controls characterised by programming, planning systems for manipulators
    • B25J9/1664—Programme controls characterised by programming, planning systems for manipulators characterised by motion, path, trajectory planning
    • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A01—AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING
    • A01K—ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; CARE OF BIRDS, FISHES, INSECTS; FISHING; REARING OR BREEDING ANIMALS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; NEW BREEDS OF ANIMALS
    • A01K1/00—Housing animals; Equipment therefor
    • A01K1/0005—Stable partitions
    • A01K1/0017—Gates, doors
    • A01K1/0029—Crowding gates or barriers
    • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A01—AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING
    • A01K—ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; CARE OF BIRDS, FISHES, INSECTS; FISHING; REARING OR BREEDING ANIMALS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; NEW BREEDS OF ANIMALS
    • A01K15/00—Devices for taming animals, e.g. nose-rings or hobbles; Devices for overturning animals in general; Training or exercising equipment; Covering boxes
    • A01K15/003—Nose-rings; Fastening tools therefor; Catching or driving equipment
    • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A01—AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING
    • A01K—ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; CARE OF BIRDS, FISHES, INSECTS; FISHING; REARING OR BREEDING ANIMALS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; NEW BREEDS OF ANIMALS
    • A01K15/00—Devices for taming animals, e.g. nose-rings or hobbles; Devices for overturning animals in general; Training or exercising equipment; Covering boxes
    • A01K15/02—Training or exercising equipment, e.g. mazes or labyrinths for animals ; Electric shock devices ; Toys specially adapted for animals
    • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A01—AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING
    • A01K—ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; CARE OF BIRDS, FISHES, INSECTS; FISHING; REARING OR BREEDING ANIMALS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; NEW BREEDS OF ANIMALS
    • A01K15/00—Devices for taming animals, e.g. nose-rings or hobbles; Devices for overturning animals in general; Training or exercising equipment; Covering boxes
    • A01K15/02—Training or exercising equipment, e.g. mazes or labyrinths for animals ; Electric shock devices ; Toys specially adapted for animals
    • A01K15/021—Electronic training devices specially adapted for dogs or cats
    • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A01—AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING
    • A01K—ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; CARE OF BIRDS, FISHES, INSECTS; FISHING; REARING OR BREEDING ANIMALS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; NEW BREEDS OF ANIMALS
    • A01K15/00—Devices for taming animals, e.g. nose-rings or hobbles; Devices for overturning animals in general; Training or exercising equipment; Covering boxes
    • A01K15/02—Training or exercising equipment, e.g. mazes or labyrinths for animals ; Electric shock devices ; Toys specially adapted for animals
    • A01K15/021—Electronic training devices specially adapted for dogs or cats
    • A01K15/023—Anti-evasion devices
    • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A01—AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING
    • A01K—ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; CARE OF BIRDS, FISHES, INSECTS; FISHING; REARING OR BREEDING ANIMALS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; NEW BREEDS OF ANIMALS
    • A01K29/00—Other apparatus for animal husbandry
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G05—CONTROLLING; REGULATING
    • G05D—SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLING OR REGULATING NON-ELECTRIC VARIABLES
    • G05D1/00—Control of position, course or altitude of land, water, air, or space vehicles, e.g. automatic pilot
    • G05D1/10—Simultaneous control of position or course in three dimensions
    • G05D1/101—Simultaneous control of position or course in three dimensions specially adapted for aircraft
    • G05D1/104—Simultaneous control of position or course in three dimensions specially adapted for aircraft involving a plurality of aircrafts, e.g. formation flying
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01S—RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION OR RERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES
    • G01S5/00—Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more direction or position line determinations; Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more distance determinations
    • G01S5/02—Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more direction or position line determinations; Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more distance determinations using radio waves
    • G01S5/0284—Relative positioning
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G05—CONTROLLING; REGULATING
    • G05B—CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS
    • G05B2219/00—Program-control systems
    • G05B2219/30—Nc systems
    • G05B2219/39—Robotics, robotics to robotics hand
    • G05B2219/39163—Formation control, robots form a rigid formation, fixed relationship

Definitions

  • This invention concerns the mustering of animals. Mustering is hard, dangerous and labour intensive. It is currently conducted by people on motorbike, quadbike or horse, or in a helicopter. In particular the invention concerns a method for mustering animals. In another aspect the invention concerns a robot mustering agent and in a further aspect the invention is software to control the robot mustering agent.
  • a remote controlled helicopter has been used in another experiment to "push" cattle around a paddock.
  • the cattle and the helicopter were instrumented with GPS receivers and the devices periodically broadcast their position.
  • the helicopter received position messages from the cattle.
  • the helicopter pilot standing on the ground, had difficulty in maintaining the position of the helicopter with respect to the herd. At distance the pilot also had difficulty in estimating the distance to the helicopter.
  • the present invention is a method for operating a robot mustering agent for mustering a herd of animals, comprising the steps of:
  • each mustering agent will also determine the location, direction and speed of the other mustering agent or agents. These determinations may result from the use of communications to exchange information about locations, or rely on perceiving the other robots.
  • the robot mustering agents themselves may be ground or aerial robots, such as helicopters or fixed wing aircraft.
  • the robots may be completely autonomous, performing the storing and determining steps on board.
  • the robots may operate as drones receiving instructions from a base station or operating in cooperating with human musterers on the ground or in helicopters.
  • the base station may be mobile, for instance in a truck that follows the herd. In this case human interpretation and perception may also be fed into the control loop.
  • One way location information can be obtained is from satellite based location equipment (such as GPS, GLONASS or Galileo) carried by each animal of the herd; and if required by the mustering agent or agents.
  • the animals may also carry transmitters to broadcast their location information, either to a base station or directly to the mustering agents.
  • the animals may carry transponders or RPID tags which respond to an interrogation signal from the mustering agent with information about, one or more of, animal location, animal proximity and animal identification.
  • position information may be determined using sensors onboard the mustering agents that sense the position of other mustering agents and the animals for example using cameras and computer vision algorithms. Some combination of the two approaches may also usefully be adopted.
  • the speed and direction of animal motion can be determined from its transmitted velocity information, or its location information (as the temporal derivative).
  • the orientation of a moving animal can be obtained by several means including by inference from its direction of movement, or from an electronic compass.
  • the mustering location can be stored as map, or GPS coordinates.
  • a mustering path can be stored as a set of points each represented by coordinates.
  • the control function may take account of the distance between each robot mustering agent and the herd, and use this information to determine the speed of that agent.
  • the control function may take account of the orientation of each animal or the direction of movement of the herd, or both, and use this information to determine the direction in which one or more of the robot mustering agents will move.
  • the control function may be centralized at a ground station or onboard one of the mustering agents, distributed between the agents, or some combination of these options.
  • the control function may take account of the relative orientation of the animals and the robot mustering agents, the distances between them and various derivatives of any of the determined or stored information.
  • the invention is a robot mustering agent for mustering a herd of animals, comprising an onboard computer system programmed to perform the following steps:
  • the invention is a software program for controlling the robot mustering agent.
  • Fig. 1 is a diagram of a herd of animals and a suite of robot mustering agents.
  • Fig. 2 is a series of graphs from the very first encounter between the helicopter and herd; (a) shows the distance between the helicopter and the herd, (b) shows the velocity of the herd and (c) t shows the velocity of the helicopter Fig. 3 shows three encounters, (a) shows the distance between the helicopter and the herd, (b) shows the velocity of the herd and (c) shows the velocity of the helicopter Fig. 4 shows some longer term animal pushing experiments; (a) shows the distance between the helicopter and the herd, (b) shows the velocity of the herd and (c) shows the velocity of the helicopter
  • the animals 10 of a herd 12 are equipped with GPS devices 12 and transmitters 16 which can wirelessly communicate information about the location of each of the animals.
  • Autonomous helicopter mustering agents 20 move within the perceptual zone of the animals 10 to influence the motion of the herd toward a desired mustering location or path 30.
  • the helicopters receive and use the following information: The location information communicated from the animals 10. Information gathered by the agents 20 about their own and each other's locations.
  • This information is used by on-board computers 22 in the helicopter mustering agents 20 to continually adjust their own speed and heading.
  • the locations of the helicopters are determined with respect to the herd and the desired heading direction.
  • the distance between the helicopters and the herd is derived from this information, as are the orientations of the helicopters and each of the animals.
  • the speed of the animals is a function of the distance of the nearest helicopter. If the helicopter falls too far behind the moving herd, they stop, if too close they tend to panic. Such a stop/start motion of the herd is undesirable. As a result the magnitude of the distance between each helicopter and the herd is used to determine the speed and position of that helicopter. In this way the relative positions of the helicopters to the herd is controlled in order to maintain the desired speed of the herd.
  • Knowing the orientation of each animal is also important, since initially the animals are curious and look at the helicopter. However, as the helicopter approaches the animals they turn away and exhibit a flight response by beginning to move. The relevant bearing angles of the animal's motion are derived and used to determine the directions in which the helicopters will fly. It may be necessary to emit an audible or visual stimuli in order to elicit the response from the animals to compensate for the small size of the robot.
  • Fig. 2 shows the very first encounter 200 between the herd and the helicopter.
  • the helicopter was required to approach within 20m, see 205, before the herd moved 210.
  • the explanation for this behaviour is that the animals were curious and turned to look at the helicopter before becoming somewhat uncomfortable and moving off.
  • the second encounter 220 was similar.
  • the fourth encounter 250 shows sustained herd velocity of more than 0.5m/s 255 for a helicopter proximity of less than 40m 260.
  • Fig. 3 shows three encounters 300, 310 and 320. They each show that herd motion occurs consistently 330 when the helicopter moves closer than 50m 340.

Abstract

This invention concerns the mustering of animals. Mustering is currently conducted by people on motorbike, quadbike or horse, or in a helicopter. In particular the invention concerns a method for mustering animals. The method involves operating a robot mustering agent for mustering a herd of animals, comprising the steps of: Determining the location, direction and speed of the herd. Determining the location, direction and speed of the mustering agent. Storing information about the mustering location or path. Storing information about individual animal or herd behaviour. Storing a control function. Repeatedly using the determined and stored information and the control function to calculate adjustments to the speed and direction of the mustering agent. And, implementing the adjustments in the operation of the mustering agent. In another aspect the invention concerns a robot mustering agent and in a further aspect the invention is software to control the robot mustering agent.

Description

Title
Robot Mustering of Animals
Technical Field
This invention concerns the mustering of animals. Mustering is hard, dangerous and labour intensive. It is currently conducted by people on motorbike, quadbike or horse, or in a helicopter. In particular the invention concerns a method for mustering animals. In another aspect the invention concerns a robot mustering agent and in a further aspect the invention is software to control the robot mustering agent.
Background Art
There is a shortage of labour available for mustering, and the remoteness of the locations as well as rural demographic shifts will continue to exacerbate this shortage into the future. Mustering and fencing combined comprise 30% of the cost of raising an animal1-11.
Earlier work describes technology which can be used to provide stimuli directly to the animal to influence the animal's individual behaviour. While this "virtual fencing" approach is theoretically feasible, and simple experiments support this view, large- scale long-term trials have not yet been successfully completed.
The idea of using robots to muster animals in not in itself new. In an earlier experiment a robot was programmed with a model of the animal's behaviour and received information regarding the animal's location. An overhead camera was used to find the location of the animals being mustered[2].
A remote controlled helicopter has been used in another experiment to "push" cattle around a paddock. The cattle and the helicopter were instrumented with GPS receivers and the devices periodically broadcast their position. The helicopter received position messages from the cattle. However, the helicopter pilot, standing on the ground, had difficulty in maintaining the position of the helicopter with respect to the herd. At distance the pilot also had difficulty in estimating the distance to the helicopter.
Disclosure of the Invention
The present invention is a method for operating a robot mustering agent for mustering a herd of animals, comprising the steps of:
Determining the location, direction and speed of the herd.
Determining the location, direction and speed of the mustering agent.
Storing information about the mustering location or path.
Storing information about individual animal or herd behaviour.
Storing a control function.
Repeatedly using the determined and stored information and the control function to calculate adjustments to the speed and direction of the mustering agent. And,
Implementing the adjustments in the operation of the mustering agent.
There may be more than one of the robot mustering agents, for instance one behind the herd and one on each flank In this case each mustering agent will also determine the location, direction and speed of the other mustering agent or agents. These determinations may result from the use of communications to exchange information about locations, or rely on perceiving the other robots.
The robot mustering agents themselves may be ground or aerial robots, such as helicopters or fixed wing aircraft. The robots may be completely autonomous, performing the storing and determining steps on board. Alternatively, the robots may operate as drones receiving instructions from a base station or operating in cooperating with human musterers on the ground or in helicopters. The base station may be mobile, for instance in a truck that follows the herd. In this case human interpretation and perception may also be fed into the control loop.
One way location information can be obtained is from satellite based location equipment (such as GPS, GLONASS or Galileo) carried by each animal of the herd; and if required by the mustering agent or agents. The animals may also carry transmitters to broadcast their location information, either to a base station or directly to the mustering agents. Alternatively the animals may carry transponders or RPID tags which respond to an interrogation signal from the mustering agent with information about, one or more of, animal location, animal proximity and animal identification. Alternatively, position information may be determined using sensors onboard the mustering agents that sense the position of other mustering agents and the animals for example using cameras and computer vision algorithms. Some combination of the two approaches may also usefully be adopted.
The speed and direction of animal motion can be determined from its transmitted velocity information, or its location information (as the temporal derivative). The orientation of a moving animal can be obtained by several means including by inference from its direction of movement, or from an electronic compass.
The mustering location can be stored as map, or GPS coordinates. A mustering path can be stored as a set of points each represented by coordinates.
The animal or herd behaviours can be stored as a mathematical model, for instance a series of equations.
Information about obstacles in the environment such as fences, waterways or remnant vegetation into which the animals cannot be moved, may also be stored.
The control function may take account of the distance between each robot mustering agent and the herd, and use this information to determine the speed of that agent.
The control function may take account of the orientation of each animal or the direction of movement of the herd, or both, and use this information to determine the direction in which one or more of the robot mustering agents will move. The control function may be centralized at a ground station or onboard one of the mustering agents, distributed between the agents, or some combination of these options. The control function may take account of the relative orientation of the animals and the robot mustering agents, the distances between them and various derivatives of any of the determined or stored information.
The concept could be extended to any robot, flying (rotorcraft or fixed wing) or on the ground. However for extensive grazing systems with unimproved pastures the ground conditions are harsh and not amenable to this mode of locomotion.
In a second aspect the invention is a robot mustering agent for mustering a herd of animals, comprising an onboard computer system programmed to perform the following steps:
Determining the location, direction and speed of the herd.
Determining the location, direction and speed of the mustering agent.
Storing information about the mustering location or path.
Storing information about individual animal or herd behaviour.
Storing a control function. And,
Repeatedly using the determined and stored information and the control function to calculate adjustments to the speed and direction of the mustering agent.
In a third aspect the invention is a software program for controlling the robot mustering agent.
Brief Description of the Drawings
A specific example of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Fig. 1 is a diagram of a herd of animals and a suite of robot mustering agents. Fig. 2 is a series of graphs from the very first encounter between the helicopter and herd; (a) shows the distance between the helicopter and the herd, (b) shows the velocity of the herd and (c) tshows the velocity of the helicopter Fig. 3 shows three encounters, (a) shows the distance between the helicopter and the herd, (b) shows the velocity of the herd and (c) shows the velocity of the helicopter Fig. 4 shows some longer term animal pushing experiments; (a) shows the distance between the helicopter and the herd, (b) shows the velocity of the herd and (c) shows the velocity of the helicopter
Best Modes of the Invention
Referring now to Fig. 1, the animals 10 of a herd 12 are equipped with GPS devices 12 and transmitters 16 which can wirelessly communicate information about the location of each of the animals. Autonomous helicopter mustering agents 20 move within the perceptual zone of the animals 10 to influence the motion of the herd toward a desired mustering location or path 30.
To assist in mustering, the helicopters receive and use the following information: The location information communicated from the animals 10. Information gathered by the agents 20 about their own and each other's locations.
Stored information about the mustering location or path 30. And, stored information about individual animal and herd behaviour.
This information is used by on-board computers 22 in the helicopter mustering agents 20 to continually adjust their own speed and heading. In particular the locations of the helicopters are determined with respect to the herd and the desired heading direction. The distance between the helicopters and the herd is derived from this information, as are the orientations of the helicopters and each of the animals.
The speed of the animals is a function of the distance of the nearest helicopter. If the helicopter falls too far behind the moving herd, they stop, if too close they tend to panic. Such a stop/start motion of the herd is undesirable. As a result the magnitude of the distance between each helicopter and the herd is used to determine the speed and position of that helicopter. In this way the relative positions of the helicopters to the herd is controlled in order to maintain the desired speed of the herd.
Knowing the orientation of each animal is also important, since initially the animals are curious and look at the helicopter. However, as the helicopter approaches the animals they turn away and exhibit a flight response by beginning to move. The relevant bearing angles of the animal's motion are derived and used to determine the directions in which the helicopters will fly. It may be necessary to emit an audible or visual stimuli in order to elicit the response from the animals to compensate for the small size of the robot.
In experiments five cattle were fitted with GPS recording collars which measured their position and velocity every second. The helicopter was remote controlled and also fitted with a GPS recording device which measured its position and velocity every second. The helicopter pilot stood in a scaffold tower at one corner of the paddock.
For the data analysis the location of the herd is taken as the median position of all five animals and the herd velocity is the mean velocity of all five animals. From the experiments the time series data is presented in Figs. 2, 3 and 4. In each drawing there are three traces: (a) shows the distance between the helicopter and the herd, (b) shows the velocity of the herd and (c) shows the velocity of the helicopter.
Fig. 2 shows the very first encounter 200 between the herd and the helicopter. In the very first encounter the helicopter was required to approach within 20m, see 205, before the herd moved 210. The explanation for this behaviour is that the animals were curious and turned to look at the helicopter before becoming somewhat uncomfortable and moving off. The second encounter 220 was similar.
For the third encounter 230 the animals were already moving 235 and the helicopter approaching them from the front 240 was able to stop them then change their direction 245.
The fourth encounter 250 shows sustained herd velocity of more than 0.5m/s 255 for a helicopter proximity of less than 40m 260.
Fig. 3 shows three encounters 300, 310 and 320. They each show that herd motion occurs consistently 330 when the helicopter moves closer than 50m 340. Fig. 4 shows some longer term animal pushing experiments. The animals were stationary and at t=8630s, see 400, the herd speed increases as the robot approaches, and the animals loiter for a short while but after t=8750s, see 405, the animals maintain an average speed of around lm/s while the helicopter is less than 20m from the herd. A brief withdrawal at t=9000s, see 410, causes the herd speed to drop.
Although the invention has been described with reference to particular examples, it will be appreciated that it could be put into practice in many other ways. For instance, it could be put into practice by robots moving along the ground or by fixed wing aircraft. The robots could carry sensors that detect the locations of the animals, so that the animals do not need to carry GPS equipment and transmitters. Some of the functions of the robots could be provided by experienced humans. In this case the robots may transmit still pictures or video to the humans.
References
1. R. Rouda, Virtual Fencing — Grazing Animal Control for the 21 st Century, tech. report ISSN 13265-415, Agricultural Western Australia, 1999.
2. Richard Vaughan, robot sheepdog project.
3. Richard T. Vaughan. Experiments in Automatic Flock Control. PhD thesis, University of Oxford, 1999.
4. Z.Butler, P. Corke, R. Peterson, and D. Rus. From robots to animals: Virtual fences for controlling cattle. International Journal of Robotics Research, 25(5-6):485-508, may 2006.

Claims

Claims
1. A method for operating a robot mustering agent for mustering a herd of animals, comprising the steps of: determining the location, direction and speed of the herd; determining the location, direction and speed of the mustering agent; storing information about the mustering location or path; storing information about individual animal or herd behaviour; storing a control function; repeatedly using the determined and stored information and the control function to calculate adjustments to the speed and direction of the mustering agent; and, implementing the adjustments in the operation of the mustering agent.
2. A method according to claim 1, wherein there are more than one of the robot mustering agents, and each mustering agent will also determine the location, direction and speed of the other mustering agent or agents.
3. A method according to claim 2, wherein the determinations about the other mustering agent or agents result from the use of communications to exchange information about locations.
4. A method according to claim 2, wherein the robot mustering agents themselves are aerial robots, such as helicopters.
5. A method according to claim 2, wherein the robots are completely autonomous, performing the storing and determining steps on board.
6. A method according to claim 2, wherein the robots operate as drones receiving instructions from a base station, or operating in cooperating with human musterers on the ground or in helicopters.
7. A method according to claim 6, wherein the base station is mobile and follows the herd.
8. A method according to claim 1 , wherein location information is obtained is from satellite based location equipment carried by each animal of the herd; and by the mustering agent or agents.
9. A method according to claim 8, wherein the location information is broadcast.
10. A method according to claim 8, wherein the location information is elicited by an interrogation signal.
11. A method according to claim 8, wherein the location information is determined using sensors onboard the mustering agents.
12. A method according to claim 8, wherein speed and direction information is determined from location information.
13. A method according to claim 8, wherein orientation of a moving animal is inferred from its direction of movement.
14. A method according to claim 8, wherein the mustering location is stored as map, or GPS, coordinates, and a mustering path is stored as a set of points each represented by coordinates.
15. A method according to claim 8, wherein animal or herd behaviours are stored as a mathematical model, for instance a series of equations.
16. A method according to claim 8, wherein information about obstacles in the environment such as fences, waterways or remnant vegetation into which the animals cannot be moved, are also stored.
17. A method according to claim 8, wherein the control function takes account of the distance between each robot mustering agent and the herd, and uses this information to determine the speed of that agent.
18. A method according to claim 17, wherein the control function takes account of the orientation of each animal or the direction of movement of the herd, or both, and use this information to determine the direction in which one or more of the robot mustering agent will move.
19. A method according to claim 18, wherein the control function takes account of the relative orientation of the animals and the robot mustering agents, the distances between them and various derivatives of any of the determined or stored information.
20. A robot mustering agent for mustering a herd of animals, comprising an onboard computer system programmed to perform the following steps: determining the location, direction and speed of the herd; determining the location, direction and speed of the mustering agent; storing information about the mustering location or path; storing information about individual animal or herd behaviour; storing a control function; and, repeatedly using the determined and stored information and the control function to calculate adjustments to the speed and direction of the mustering agent.
21. A software program for controlling the robot mustering agent claimed in claim
PCT/AU2009/001517 2008-11-21 2009-11-20 Robot mustering of animals WO2010057266A1 (en)

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US10820574B2 (en) 2016-07-29 2020-11-03 International Business Machines Corporation Specialized contextual drones for virtual fences
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