A Nebraska cattle facility has turned to a robot to herd its cows—and keep its human workers safe.
Mooving cattle: Cattle are big. Females weigh about 1,500 to 1,800 pounds. And when you have to move thousands of the creatures a day, that’s a lot of weight trotting around. Employees working in close proximity are in danger of getting kicked or stepped on.
The low-tech robotic solution: A Cargill beef slaughter facility in Nebraska, has turned to a robot to keep more of its workers out of harm’s way. Now, admittedly, this is no shiny space-age bot. The 450-pound robot, made by the company Flock Free, is controlled by employees monitoring the scene from catwalks above. It follows the animals around, furiously waving trash bags on long sticks toguide the cows in the other direction.
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