Just shy of two years ago, Doubledale Farm in southern Jefferson County opened up a new building that manager Stephen Gillette calls the "robot barn."

“It's a nice, pretty relaxed way of farming,” Gillette said, walking inside his farm’s newest building. “The cows are in their own nature, you know, inside of a building.”

The stars of the show, so to state, have free reign.

“So you can tell it's pretty comfy and cool in here,” Gillette said of the fans everywhere.

The cows eat when they want. They walk or sleep when they want. And they milk when they want — all on their own.

“It's amazing to see that, you know, you're just sitting and standing in here. These cows are still just rolling with it. There's no one out there pushing them in. And a lot of times you see them how quick they want to fight to get in,” Gillette said with a laugh, on how the cows are able to walk in and milk on their own time at their own pace.

A machine called the "Lilly Astronaut" uses lasers and does everything from pre-milking massages to the milking itself and even cleaning up afterwards.

“Now, they are sprayed iodine on all four teats,” Gillette said of the machine milking and cleaning up the cows.

And the machine provides real-time data, sorting each cow from their collar on a screen.

“Each teat is milked separately. So if one gets done, it'll take that one off,” Gillette said.

The machine knows and records the daily milking habits of each cow, when they are regular and when something is off.

“If she's so many hours out, we'll go get her on a fetch list, we'll check her health because normally the reason why she didn't come out, because there's something wrong with her. She's sick,” he said.

So how do they find out?

“Right here, there’s a robot call,” Gillette said as his cell began to ring.

When the cows get hungry, Stephen can take out his tablet and ensure there's food nearby.

"To be able to have everything in the computer, to be able to track it, track that cow her whole life that she's here, it’s nice to have it right at your fingertips,” he said.

And throughout the day, there's also a machine for cleanup.

“The best part about these robots going through there,” Gillette said as one passed by on the barn floor.

“You're not disturbing the cows. She can lay and rest on her time.”

The machine is the barn's version of a Roomba.

“A nice clean floor means nice, good healthy feet,” Gillette said, while mentioning a cow’s comfort and cleanliness is a big part of healthy milk production.