Robots for Cows (and Their Humans): Everyone's Happier When Robots Handle Milking, Feeding, and Ear Scritching

This dairy barn is full of cows, as you might expect. Cows are being milked, cows are being fed, cows are being cleaned up after, and a few very happy cows are even getting vigorously scratched behind the ears. “I wonder where the farmer is,” remarks my guide, Jan Jacobs. Jacobs doesn't seem especially worried, though—the several hundred cows in this barn are being well cared for by a small fleet of fully autonomous robots, and the farmer might not be back for hours. The robots will let him know if anything goes wrong.

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Publication Details

Journal
IEEE Spectrum
Published
2025-05-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1109/mspec.2025.10991972
Primary Topic
Innovations in Concrete and Construction Materials
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Robots for Cows (and Their Humans): Everyone's Happier When Robots Handle Milking, Feeding, and Ear Scritching

Evan Ackerman
IEEE Spectrum
Innovations in Concrete and Construction Materials
article

Robots for Cows (and Their Humans): Everyone's Happier When Robots Handle Milking, Feeding, and Ear Scritching

Evan Ackerman
article en

Abstract

This dairy barn is full of cows, as you might expect. Cows are being milked, cows are being fed, cows are being cleaned up after, and a few very happy cows are even getting vigorously scratched behind the ears. “I wonder where the farmer is,” remarks my guide, Jan Jacobs. Jacobs doesn't seem especially worried, though—the several hundred cows in this barn are being well cared for by a small fleet of fully autonomous robots, and the farmer might not be back for hours. The robots will let him know if anything goes wrong.

IEEE SpectrumVol. 62(5)
Zero hunger
Openalex Percentile: Top 91%
Innovations in Concrete and Construction Materials
DOISourceOpenAlex
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Robots for Cows (and Their Humans): Everyone's Happier When Robots Handle Milking, Feeding, and Ear Scritching — Evan Ackerman · IEEE Spectrum (2025) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS