How dairy robots are changing work for cows and farmers

It's cool that this allows the cows to be milked whenever they feel like it. I'd imagine the autonomy actually does improve the cow's quality of life. Also neat that they learned to game the feeding robot. It reminds me of the image recognition experiments they do with birds.

And how they had to inhibit greedy cows with the munchies from volunteering to be milked too often, just to get treats!

There are certain things you just can't predict, and have to learn in the field...

The fact that cows can self-schedule is kind of amazing

Do you think cows care about human interaction, or are indifferent whether it's a living creature or a robot?

Varies from cow to cow I guess.

One particular cow ("Evjelin" IIRC) would try to avoid her own calves because (it seemed) she much preferred the machine it seemed.

The final year we found her calf with a broken neck in a flat area of the pasture. (Yes, they were always allowed to stay outdoors around when they calved and usually they spent a few days outside together. Mostly this was great I think and except this incident I only remember one other were it was a problem: one calf had got under the fence and into the bog and the cow had followed it into the bog and it was a real mess and I was a really proud teenager when I was able to get out the calf. Both of them needed help to get out but both survived and recovered nicely IIRC.)

(source: grew up on a tiny dairy farm)

Cows are herd animals and like to be in herds of 100-200. Most don't care about humans, though some enjoy pets from humans.

They aren't really scheduling though. They can feel when their udders get full. It actually can be painful if you don't milk them on time. Its comparable to eating or drinking, they go eat when they feel hunger. It is pretty cool that they learn to associate the machine though, its not like it smells the way food does, or like there is any instinct involved.