Image processing system for the measurement of timber truck loads

ABSTRACTThe paper industry uses wood as its raw material. To know the quantity of wood in the pile of sawn tree tmnks, everytruck load entering the plant is measured to determine its volume. The objective of this procedure is to know the solidvolume of wood stocked in the plant. Weighing the tree thinks has its own problems, due to the their high capacity for absorbing water.Image processing techniques were used to evaluate the volume of a truck load of logs of wood. The system is based on a PC equip with an image processing board using data flow processors. Three cameras allow image acquisition of the sides and rear of the truck.The lateral images contain information about the sectional area of the logs, and the rear image contains information about the length of the logs. The machine vision system and the implemented algorithms are described. The results being obtained with the industrial prototype that is now installed in a paper mill are also presented.1. INTRODUCTION Traditionally, truck loads of wood are measured manually by their enclosing volume or, alternatively, by their weight.Both methods produce inaccurate values of the useful quantity of wood for paper production. In fact, the enclosingvolume measure does not take into account the volume of the spaces between logs, and the weight can vary greatly