Digitale Assistenzsysteme in der Milchviehhaltung.

CattleHub is the acronym for a joint project that belongs to the group of 14 “experimental fields for digitalization” funded by the BMEL. The focus is on “Digital assistance systems for intelligent cattle farming”. In this paper, only two important objectives of the joint project are considered; the benefit effects and use limits of certain application examples as well as the distinguishing features of the assistance systems in terms of their application levels and their evaluation. In the applications presented here, it quickly becomes apparent that it is not just a matter of saving working time or relieving physical strain. Rather, the gain in degrees of freedom in the sense of an improved quality of life and sound decision support are in the foreground of the newer areas of application. The use of 'new' methods also opens up additional possibilities in digital applications. This is not only about new evaluation methods based on large amounts of data (Big Data) or new algorithms (AI); but also, digital image processing with three-dimensional cameras or the visualization of new spectra are important development areas in the context of assistance systems for cattle farming. In the case of assistance systems, not only the complexity of the applications is a distinguishing criterion, but also the level of process control up to regulation is very different. Especially in health monitoring, humans are indispensable as 'decision makers' when 'disturbances' occur. The duty of care towards the animal cannot be transferred to the digital system – in the sense of an automated treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]