Abstract
State-of-the-art optical belt sorters commonly employ line scan cameras and use simple assumptions to predict each particle's movement, which is required for the separation process. Previously, we have equipped an experimental optical belt sorter with an area scan camera and were able to show that tracking the particles of the bulk material results in an improvement of the predictions and thus also the sorting process. In this paper, we use the slight gap between the sensor lines of an RGB line scan camera to derive information about the particles' movements in real-time. This approach allows improving the predictions in optical belt sorters without necessitating any hardware modifications.
Zusammenfassung
Auf dem heutigen Stand der Technik der optischen Schüttgutsortierung werden Zeilenkameras mit einfachen Annahmen über die Teilchenbewegung kombiniert, um eine Ausschleusung bestimmter Teilchen zu ermöglichen. Kürzlich haben wir einen experimentellen optischen Bandsortierer mit einer Flächenkamera ausgestattet und gezeigt, dass durch das Verfolgen der Teilchen des Schüttguts die Güte der Vorhersagen und somit auch der Ausschleusung verbessert werden kann. In dieser Arbeit nutzen wir den Farbversatz zwischen den Farbkanälen einer Farbzeilenkamera, um in Echtzeit Informationen über die Bewegung der Teilchen abzuleiten. Dieser Ansatz erlaubt es, die Vorhersagen heutiger optischer Bandsortierer zu verbessern, ohne dass deren Hardware dafür angepasst werden muss.
About the authors
Florian Pfaff started as a Ph.D. student at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in 2014 after completing his diploma for which he received an award due to his outstanding performance. His research interests include directional estimation, distributed estimation, robust Kalman filtering, and multitarget tracking and its application to bulk material sorting.
Intelligent Sensor-Actuator-Systems Laboratory (ISAS), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany
Georg Maier is with the Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB, Karlsruhe, Germany. His research interests include different aspects of image processing, in particular algorithmic aspects, with a focus on real-time capabilities.
Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation (IOSB), Karlsruhe, Germany
Mikhail Aristov is a graduate student at the Department of Informatics of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany. His primary fields of study are artificial intelligence, signal processing, and cryptography.
Intelligent Sensor-Actuator-Systems Laboratory (ISAS), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany
Benjamin Noack received his diploma in computer science from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany, in 2009. Afterward, he obtained his Ph.D. in 2013 at the Intelligent Sensor-Actuator-Systems Laboratory, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany. Since 2013 he is a senior researcher at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany. His research interests are in the areas of multi-sensor data fusion, distributed and decentralized Kalman filtering, combined stochastic and set-membership approaches to state estimation, and event-based systems.
Intelligent Sensor-Actuator-Systems Laboratory (ISAS), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany
Robin Gruna is research group manager at the Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB in Karlsruhe. His research interests include hyperspectral imaging, machine vision, computational illumination, and chemometrics.
Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation (IOSB), Karlsruhe, Germany
Uwe D. Hanebeck is a chaired professor of Computer Science at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany and director of the Intelligent Sensor-Actuator-Systems Laboratory (ISAS). He obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1997 and his habilitation degree in 2003, both in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University in Munich, Germany. His research interests are in the areas of information fusion, nonlinear state estimation, stochastic modeling, system identification, and control with a strong emphasis on theory-driven approaches based on stochastic system theory and uncertainty models. He is author and coauthor of more than 400 publications in various high-ranking journals and conferences and an IEEE Fellow.
Intelligent Sensor-Actuator-Systems Laboratory (ISAS), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany
Thomas Längle is adjunct professor at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, and the head of the business unit “Vision Based Inspection Systems” (SPR) at the Fraunhofer IOSB in Karlsruhe, Germany. His research interests include different aspects of image processing and real-time algorithms for inspection systems.
Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation (IOSB), Karlsruhe, Germany
Jürgen Beyerer is full professor for informatics at the Institute for Anthropomatics and Robotics at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT since March 2004 and director of the Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB in Ettlingen, Karlsruhe, Ilmenau, and Lemgo. Research interests include automated visual inspection, signal and image processing, variable image acquisition and processing, active vision, metrology, information theory, fusion of data and information from heterogeneous sources, system theory, autonomous systems, and automation.
Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation (IOSB), Karlsruhe, Germany
Christoph Pieper is a research assistant at the Department of Energy Plant Technology at the Ruhr University Bochum. His research interests include numerical simulation of fluidized particle systems with the Discrete Element Method (DEM) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).
Department of Energy Plant Technology (LEAT), Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB), Bochum, Germany
Harald Kruggel-Emden is professor and head of the department of Mechanical Process Engineering and Solids Processing at the Technical University of Berlin. His research interests include Discrete Element Modelling with coupled fluid flow, material preparation and drying technology, bulk solids handling, and chemical looping combustion.
Mechanical Process Engineering and Solids Processing (MVTA), Technical University Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Siegmar Wirtz is the deputy head of the Department of Energy Plant Technology at the Ruhr University Bochum. His research interests include numerical simulation of reactive gas-solid flows, extension of commercial CFD-Codes, and Discrete Element Modelling with coupled fluid flow.
Department of Energy Plant Technology (LEAT), Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB), Bochum, Germany
Viktor Scherer is the head of the Department of Energy Plant Technology at the Ruhr University Bochum. His research interests include energetic conversion of fossil fuels and biomass as well as related industrial applications and experimental and theoretical investigation of energy and high temperature processes.
Department of Energy Plant Technology (LEAT), Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB), Bochum, Germany
Acknowledgement
The IGF project 18798 N of the research association Forschungs-Gesellschaft Verfahrens-Technik e.V. (GVT) was supported via the AiF in a program to promote the Industrial Community Research and Development (IGF) by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy on the basis of a resolution of the German Bundestag.
The authors would like to thank the students Christian Tesch and Ulrich Berger, who significantly contributed to the realization of this project.
©2017 Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
