Computer vision system for the automatic measurement of volumes of wood

In this paper we describe the computer vision system TOROS developed at INETI to automate the volumetric evaluation procedure as the loads of logs enter the paper mill. The method consists of on-line analysis of the images of all the visible sides of the load of wood, assuming that the logs are always stacked the same way, namely across the width of the truck. The lateral images captured by the system contain information about the sectional area of the logs, and the rear image provides the data related to their length. Once a calibration procedure has been applied, the measurements of the gross volume presented to the vision system are evaluated, based on the automatic detection of the contours of regions of wood in all the images considered. The most important feature of this computer vision system is the possibility to provide a measure of the percentage of wood that is really present in the consignment, through the identification of all the spaces between the ends of logs in the lateral images.