Material level detection method, device, system and operating machinery

Abstract

The present invention provides a material level height detection method, device, system and operating machinery, the method comprising: obtaining depth information inside a hopper; identifying a screen surface and a material level surface from the depth information, and calculating the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface; determining the material level height according to the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface. The material level height detection method, device, system and operating machinery provided by the present invention can obtain the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface in real time and continuously based on the depth information by collecting the depth information inside the hopper, and can achieve more accurate material level height detection based on the height difference as data. Compared with the method of using simple electrical components to detect the material level height, the method of using depth information to detect the material level height can continuously obtain the material level height detection results, and the detection accuracy and detection reliability are effectively improved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of material level detection and machine vision technology, and in particular to a material level surface height detection method, device, system and operating machinery. Background Art

[0002] At present, during material pumping operations, if the unloading speed is fast but the pumping speed is slow, the material level in the pump truck hopper is too high, and material overflow will occur, causing waste; if the unloading speed is slow but the pumping speed is fast, the material level in the pump truck hopper is too low, and empty suction will occur, affecting operation efficiency and even causing safety accidents. Therefore, being able to determine the height information of the material level in the pump truck hopper in a timely and accurate manner is the key to ensuring the effective coordination of unloading operations and pumping operations.

[0003] The existing material level detection method generally realizes automatic detection of material level by installing a sensor at a fixed position in the hopper, and can further realize the alarm function by cooperating with an external controller and alarm. However, since the sensor is installed in the hopper, it is easy to trigger the alarm frequently due to the up and down floating of the material in the hopper, resulting in the problem of false alarm and low detection reliability. At the same time, using simple electrical components to detect material level information has low detection accuracy and it is difficult to realize continuous detection of material level.

[0004] Therefore, there is an urgent need for a material level detection method that is more reliable, more accurate and capable of real-time continuous detection to solve the above problems. Summary of the invention

[0005] The present invention provides a material level detection method, device, system and operating machinery, which are used to solve the defects of low reliability, low detection accuracy and inability to continuously detect the material level in the prior art.

[0006] In a first aspect, the present invention provides a material level detection method, the method comprising:

[0007] Get the depth information inside the hopper;

[0008] Identifying a screen surface and a material level surface from the depth information, and calculating a height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface;

[0009] The height of the material level is determined according to the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface.

[0010] According to the material level surface height detection method provided by the present invention, the process of identifying the screen surface and the material level surface from the depth information and calculating the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface includes:

[0011] Extracting three-dimensional point cloud data of the screen surface and three-dimensional point cloud data of the material level surface from the depth information;

[0012] Respectively calculating the distance value of the three-dimensional point cloud data of the screen surface and the distance value of the three-dimensional point cloud data of the material level surface;

[0013] The distance value of the three-dimensional point cloud data of the screen surface is subtracted from the distance value of the three-dimensional point cloud data of the material level surface to obtain the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface.

[0014] According to the material level surface height detection method provided by the present invention, the process of extracting the three-dimensional point cloud data of the screen surface and the three-dimensional point cloud data of the material level surface from the depth information includes:

[0015] The distance between the depth information acquisition device and the screen surface for obtaining the depth information;

[0016] According to the distance between the depth information acquisition device and the screen surface, a distance threshold range is set;

[0017] Constructing a region of interest, and intercepting the depth information according to the region of interest;

[0018] In the intercepted depth information, point clouds within the distance threshold are extracted, and the number of extracted point clouds is divided by the total number of point clouds in the intercepted depth information, and the result of the division is compared with the preset proportion threshold. Based on the comparison result, the three-dimensional point cloud data of the screen surface and the three-dimensional point cloud data of the material level surface are determined.

[0019] According to the material level surface height detection method provided by the present invention, after identifying the screen surface and the material level surface from the depth information and calculating the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface, it also includes:

[0020] The height difference is compared with a preset height difference threshold to determine whether the height difference is abnormal. After determining that the height difference is abnormal, an abnormal material level height alarm is triggered.

[0021] According to the material level surface height detection method provided by the present invention, after identifying the screen surface and the material level surface from the depth information and calculating the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface, it also includes:

[0022] The change in the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface within a preset time period is obtained, and the material level surface height change rate is calculated.

[0023] According to the material level detection method provided by the present invention, after obtaining the change amount of the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface within a preset time period and calculating the material level height change rate, it also includes:

[0024] The material level surface height change rate is compared with a preset height change rate threshold to determine the rate range in which the current material level surface height change rate is located, and the height difference is compared with a preset height difference threshold under the current rate range to determine whether the height difference is abnormal. After determining that the height difference is abnormal, the material level height abnormality alarm is triggered.

[0025] According to the material level detection method provided by the present invention, the depth information inside the hopper is obtained by the following methods:

[0026] Get the depth information inside the hopper from outside the hopper.

[0027] In a second aspect, the present invention further provides a material level detection device, the device comprising:

[0028] An acquisition module, used to obtain the depth information inside the hopper;

[0029] A first processing module, used for identifying a screen surface and a material level surface from the depth information, and determining a height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface;

[0030] The second processing module is used to determine the height of the material level according to the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface.

[0031] In a third aspect, the present invention further provides a material level detection system, the system comprising:

[0032] A collection device for collecting depth information inside the hopper;

[0033] A computing device is used to identify a screen surface and a material level surface from the depth information, calculate a height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface, and determine a height of the material level surface according to the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface.

[0034] According to a material level surface height detection system provided by the present invention, the acquisition device is a depth sensor, the depth sensor is installed above the hopper, and the computing device is an edge computing box.

[0035] Since the depth sensor is installed above the hopper, the depth information can be collected outside the hopper, avoiding the problem of false alarm caused by installing the sensor inside the hopper, and the reliability of the material level height detection process is greatly improved.

[0036] In a fourth aspect, the present invention further provides an operating machine, which uses any of the above-mentioned material level height detection methods to achieve real-time detection of the material level height during operation.

[0037] The material level surface height detection method, device, system and operating machinery provided by the present invention can obtain the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface in real time and continuously based on the depth information by collecting the depth information inside the hopper. With the height difference as the data basis, more accurate material level surface height detection can be achieved. Compared with the method of using simple electrical components to detect the material level height, the method of using depth information to detect the material level surface height can continuously obtain the material level surface height detection results, and the detection accuracy and detection reliability are effectively improved. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0038] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the present invention or the prior art, the drawings required for use in the embodiments or the description of the prior art will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are some embodiments of the present invention. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without paying creative work.

[0039] Figure 1 It is a schematic flow chart of the material level detection method provided by the present invention;

[0040] Figure 2 It is a structural schematic diagram of the material level detection device provided by the present invention;

[0041] Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of the working principle of the material level detection system constructed by the depth sensor, edge computing box, pump truck controller and alarm;

[0042] Figure 4 It is a structural schematic diagram of the electronic device provided by the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0043] In order to make the purpose, technical solution and advantages of the present invention clearer, the technical solution of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with the drawings of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0044] Figure 1 The material level detection method provided by the present invention is shown, and the method comprises:

[0045] S110: Obtaining depth information inside the hopper;

[0046] S120: Identify the screen surface and the material level surface from the depth information, and calculate the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface;

[0047] S130: Determine the height of the material level according to the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface.

[0048] It should be noted that the present embodiment adopts depth information analysis and processing to realize the detection of material level surface height in the hopper. The depth information mainly refers to three-dimensional point cloud data. Of course, it can also be other data that can determine the height difference between the screen surface and the material level surface, such as a grayscale image. Considering the data processing accuracy, the present embodiment uses three-dimensional point cloud data as the data basis for material level surface height detection.

[0049] In the depth information acquisition link, in order to ensure the reliability and stability of the data acquisition process, this embodiment obtains the depth information inside the hopper outside the hopper, thereby avoiding the problem of traditional material level surface height detection methods that are prone to triggering false alarms due to the sensor being set inside the hopper.

[0050] Specifically, the process of identifying the screen surface and the material level surface from the depth information and calculating the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface includes:

[0051] Firstly, the three-dimensional point cloud data of the screen surface and the material level surface are extracted from the depth information to determine the positions of the screen surface and the material level surface in the hopper.

[0052] In order to accurately extract the three-dimensional point cloud data of the screen surface and the material level surface from the depth information, this embodiment provides the following implementation scheme:

[0053] The first step is to fix the depth information acquisition device (ie, depth sensor) used to collect depth information, and obtain the distance between the depth information acquisition device and the screen surface, for example, fix the distance between the depth information acquisition device and the screen surface to 60 cm.

[0054] The second step is to set the distance threshold range according to the distance between the depth information acquisition device and the screen surface.

[0055] This distance threshold range is mainly used to extract point cloud data of the screen surface. The endpoint value of the distance threshold range can be determined by adding an acceptable floating value to the distance value between the depth information acquisition device and the screen surface. For example, if the floating value is set to 3 cm, the distance threshold range can be 57 cm to 63 cm.

[0056] The third step is to construct a ROI area (i.e., region of interest) and intercept the depth information according to the ROI area.

[0057] The ROI area can be obtained by pre-obtaining the real ROI area and the ratio of the actual length of the screen surface to the length in the pixel space. Specifically, the real ROI area can be a rectangular frame. The coordinates of any vertex (X, Y), length H, width W and other information of the real ROI area are obtained in advance, and the actual length L of the screen surface and the length L' in the pixel space are measured in advance. According to the above information, the corresponding vertex coordinates (X', Y') of the ROI area in the pixel space, as well as the length H' and width W' can be obtained. The calculation formula involved is as follows:

[0058]

[0059]

[0060]

[0061]

[0062] According to the vertex coordinates, length and width obtained above, the ROI area in the pixel space can be determined.

[0063] It can be understood that, since the ROI area can be essentially a rectangular frame, the vertex coordinates mentioned above can be any vertex coordinates of the rectangular frame, and the upper left vertex coordinates are selected in this embodiment.

[0064] The fourth step is to extract the point cloud within the distance threshold range from the intercepted depth information, and take the quotient of the number of extracted point clouds and the total number of point clouds in the intercepted depth information, and compare the result of the quotient with the preset proportion threshold. According to the comparison results, the three-dimensional point cloud data of the screen surface and the three-dimensional point cloud data of the material level surface are determined.

[0065] Specifically, in the intercepted depth information, point clouds within the distance threshold range are extracted, and the number of extracted point clouds is divided by the total number of point clouds in the intercepted depth information, and the result of the quotient is compared with the preset proportion threshold to determine whether the result of the quotient is greater than the proportion threshold. For example, the proportion threshold can be set to 90%. If it is greater than the proportion threshold, that is, greater than 90%, it is determined that the screen surface and the material level surface are superimposed together at this time, indicating that the material level surface is flush with the screen surface, that is, the distance between the material level surface and the screen surface is 0; otherwise, the extracted point cloud is used as the screen surface point cloud data, and the other point clouds in the intercepted depth information are used as the material level surface point cloud data.

[0066] Then, the distance value H1 of the three-dimensional point cloud data of the screen surface and the distance value H2 of the three-dimensional point cloud data of the material level surface are calculated respectively, that is, the distance from each point on the screen surface to the depth information acquisition device and the distance from each point on the material level surface to the depth information acquisition device are determined.

[0067] Finally, the distance value H1 of the three-dimensional point cloud data of the screen surface is subtracted from the distance value H2 of the three-dimensional point cloud data of the material level surface to obtain the height difference △H between the material level surface and the screen surface, that is:

[0068] △H=H1-H2 (5)

[0069] Based on this, this embodiment can use depth information to achieve real-time detection of continuous changes in the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface.

[0070] According to the obtained height difference △H, it is possible to further analyze whether the current material level height is normal. Specifically, a maximum height difference threshold △H can be pre-set max And the minimum value of the height difference threshold △H min , if the height difference currently obtained satisfies △H min ≤△H≤△H max , it means that the current material level height is within the normal range. If the height difference currently obtained satisfies △H<△H min Or △H>△H max , indicating that the material level height deviates from the normal range.

[0071] In actual application, the material level height can be further controlled according to the judgment result of whether the material level height is normal. The control process is as follows:

[0072] If the height difference currently obtained satisfies △H<△H min , it means that the material level is too high at this time, and the unloading speed can be appropriately reduced or the pumping speed can be appropriately increased. If the height difference currently obtained satisfies △H>△H max , it means that the material level is too low at this time. The unloading speed can be appropriately increased or the pumping speed can be appropriately reduced. The specific control of the unloading speed and the pumping speed can be reasonably set according to the actual situation. The final material level can be controlled within a reasonable range, realizing the effective coordination of pumping and unloading, which not only ensures the operation efficiency and safety, but also avoids the problem of material waste.

[0073] More preferably, the material level surface height detection method provided in this embodiment can also add an alarm process, which can compare the height difference with a preset height difference threshold to determine whether the height difference is abnormal. After determining that the height difference is abnormal, the material level height abnormality alarm is triggered.

[0074] Specifically, if the currently obtained height difference satisfies △H<△H min Or △H>△H max , indicating that the material level height deviates from the normal range. At this time, the abnormal material level height alarm can be triggered to remind the staff that the material level height is abnormal. If necessary, manual intervention can be carried out to adjust the material level.

[0075] More preferably, the material level surface height detection method provided in this embodiment can also introduce the material level surface height change rate. Specifically, the material level surface height change rate can be calculated by obtaining the change in the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface within a preset time period.

[0076] In this embodiment, the moving average algorithm is used to obtain the change d of the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface corresponding to every 500 ms, and then the material level surface height change rate is calculated by the following formula:

[0077]

[0078] Among them, v represents the rate of change of the material level surface height, t represents the preset time period, which is set to 500ms in this embodiment, and d represents the change in the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface.

[0079] After calculating the material level height change rate, the control and alarm process can be combined with the material level height change rate to obtain better control and alarm effects. Specifically, the material level height change rate is compared with the preset height change rate threshold to determine the rate range of the current material level height change rate, and the height difference is compared with the preset height difference threshold under the current rate range to determine whether the height difference is abnormal. After determining that the height difference is abnormal, the material level height abnormal alarm is triggered.

[0080] In this embodiment, when v<5cm / s, △H min Set to 8cm, △H max Set to 30cm. When the height difference satisfies △H<8cm or △H>30cm, it will be judged that the material level height deviates from the normal range. When the above conditions are met, the abnormal material level height alarm will be triggered, and the unloading and pumping speeds need to be adjusted according to the actual situation.

[0081] When v>5cm / s, △H min Set to 10cm, △H max Set to 28cm, when the height difference satisfies △H<10cm or △H>28cm, it will be judged that the material level height deviates from the normal range. When the above conditions are met, the abnormal material level height alarm will be triggered, and the unloading and pumping speeds need to be adjusted according to the actual situation.

[0082] It is not difficult to find that after considering the rate of change of the material level surface height, the control and alarm conditions are divided into two situations. Different judgment conditions are adopted according to different situations. Compared with the situation where only the height difference is considered as the data basis, the material level height control process is more reliable.

[0083] More preferably, in order to ensure the accuracy of depth information collection, before obtaining the depth information inside the hopper, the present embodiment also needs to adjust the depth information collection device (ie, the depth sensor) so that the quality of the data collected by the device meets the preset requirements.

[0084] Specifically, depth information samples inside the hopper are collected in advance, and whether the data collection quality of the depth information collection equipment meets the standards is determined based on the depth information samples. After determining that the data collection quality does not meet the standards, the depth information collection equipment is adjusted until the data collection quality meets the standards.

[0085] In actual application, the above-mentioned data quality detection process can judge whether the installation height and shooting angle of the depth information acquisition device are reasonable through the position of the target in the depth information sample and the height from the depth information acquisition device. If there is a certain deviation, it can be adjusted in time, and manual adjustment can be made if necessary.

[0086] The above data quality detection process can be executed once each time before starting to collect depth information to ensure that the depth information actually obtained is more accurate.

[0087] In an exemplary embodiment, the process of determining the height of the material level surface according to the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface can be achieved in the following manner:

[0088] The first method: take the screen surface as the reference plane, that is, the height of the screen surface is set to 0, so that the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface is the height value of the material level surface. If the height value is 0, it means that the material level surface is flush with the screen surface. If the height value is a negative value, it means that the material level surface is higher than the screen surface. If the height value is a positive value, it means that the material level surface is lower than the screen surface.

[0089] The second method: determine the height value of the screen surface. The height value can be a height value obtained based on the ground or a height value obtained based on the bottom of the hopper. It is selected reasonably according to actual needs. Then, the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface is superimposed on the height value of the screen surface to obtain the corresponding material level surface height value.

[0090] It can be understood that the material level detection method provided in this embodiment is mainly used in concrete pump trucks. By detecting the height difference between the material level surface in the hopper of the pump truck and the screen surface, the height of the material level surface in the hopper of the pump truck can be determined.

[0091] At the same time, using the height difference as the control basis, the unloading speed of the concrete mixer truck and the pumping speed of the pump truck can also be regulated, so that the height of the material level in the hopper of the pump truck is controlled within a normal range, ensuring the pumping efficiency and safety while avoiding the problem of concrete material waste.

[0092] The material level detection device provided by the present invention is described below. The material level detection device described below and the material level detection method described above can be referenced to each other.

[0093] Figure 2 The material level detection device provided by an embodiment of the present invention is shown, and the device comprises:

[0094] An acquisition module 210 is used to acquire depth information inside the hopper;

[0095] A first processing module 220 is used to identify the screen surface and the material level surface from the depth information, and determine the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface;

[0096] The second processing module 230 is used to determine the height of the material level according to the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface.

[0097] Specifically, in this embodiment, the first processing module 220 specifically includes:

[0098] An extraction unit, used for extracting three-dimensional point cloud data of the screen surface and three-dimensional point cloud data of the material level surface from the depth information;

[0099] A first calculation unit is used to calculate the distance value of the three-dimensional point cloud data of the screen surface and the distance value of the three-dimensional point cloud data of the material level surface respectively;

[0100] The second calculation unit is used to subtract the distance value of the three-dimensional point cloud data of the screen surface from the distance value of the three-dimensional point cloud data of the material level surface to obtain the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface.

[0101] Furthermore, the above-mentioned extraction unit is specifically used to: obtain the distance between the depth information acquisition device used to measure the depth information and the screen surface; set the distance threshold range according to the distance between the depth information acquisition device and the screen surface; construct an area of ​​interest, and intercept the depth information according to the area of ​​interest; in the intercepted depth information, extract the point cloud within the distance threshold range, and take the quotient of the number of extracted point clouds and the total number of point clouds in the intercepted depth information, compare the result of the quotient with the preset proportion threshold, and determine the three-dimensional point cloud data of the screen surface and the three-dimensional point cloud data of the material level surface according to the comparison result.

[0102] More preferably, the material level detection device provided in this embodiment may further include:

[0103] The alarm module is used to compare the height difference value obtained by the first processing module with a preset height difference threshold value to determine whether the height difference value is abnormal, and after determining that the height difference value is abnormal, trigger an abnormal material level height alarm.

[0104] More preferably, the material level detection device provided in this embodiment may further include:

[0105] The third processing module is used to obtain the change in the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface within a preset time period, and calculate the material level surface height change rate.

[0106] Correspondingly, the above-mentioned alarm module is also used to compare the material level surface height change rate with the preset height change rate threshold, determine the rate range in which the current material level surface height change rate is located, and compare the height difference with the preset height difference threshold under the current rate range to determine whether the height difference is abnormal. After determining that the height difference is abnormal, the material level height abnormality alarm is triggered.

[0107] That is to say, there are two ways to implement the alarm function in this embodiment. One way is to directly use the height difference data as the only data basis for abnormal alarm. The other way is to introduce the material level surface height change rate. According to the range of the material level surface height change rate, the height difference abnormal judgment conditions are set according to the situation, so as to carry out targeted abnormal warning.

[0108] In addition, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a material level detection system, the system comprising:

[0109] A collection device for collecting depth information inside the hopper;

[0110] The computing device is used to identify the screen surface and the material level surface from the depth information, calculate the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface, and determine the height of the material level surface according to the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface.

[0111] In actual application, the acquisition device in this embodiment can use a depth sensor, that is, a depth camera, also called a depth information sensor, and the depth sensor is fixedly installed above the hopper through a bracket to ensure that the depth sensor can capture the depth information inside the hopper. The computing device in this embodiment can use an edge computing box, and the depth information collected by the depth sensor is sent to the edge computing box. The edge computing box analyzes and calculates the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface, and then the height of the material level surface can be calculated.

[0112] At the same time, the system can further add a material surface height control function. The edge computing box can send the above-mentioned height difference to the control device, which can be implemented through the pump truck controller. The pump truck controller generates a control signal after receiving the height difference information. The pump truck controller can send a control signal to the concrete mixer truck to adjust the unloading speed. It can also send a control signal to its own pump drive device to control the pump speed.

[0113] In addition, the system can also add an early warning function, which is mainly used to provide timely early warning prompts when the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface is abnormal. Of course, it can also prompt other abnormal conditions, such as abnormal startup of a hardware device in the system. The early warning function can be achieved through an alarm. Specifically, the alarm can be installed near the hopper of the pump truck, such as on the bracket of the depth sensor, and the alarm prompt can be given through a prompt sound or flashing light.

[0114] See attached Figure 3 , for the material level detection system built by depth sensor, edge computing box, pump truck controller and alarm, its workflow is as follows:

[0115] First, the pump truck controller sends instructions to turn on the power of the depth sensor and edge computing box.

[0116] In this embodiment, a corresponding software system is configured in the edge computing box, and the software system includes: a driving module for driving the depth sensor, a calculation module for calculating height difference information, a detection module for detecting the current working conditions, and a communication module for transmitting material level height information.

[0117] The edge computing box is connected to the depth sensor and the CAN communication hardware interface. When the power is turned on, the edge computing box will automatically start up and the self-starting software system will open and start the depth sensor and CAN interface. If the startup is unsuccessful, no signal will be returned, and the pump truck controller will control the alarm to sound an alarm, indicating that the edge computing box is abnormally started.

[0118] Then, the depth sensor starts to collect depth information inside the hopper and sends it to the edge computing box to start calculating the data.

[0119] In order to ensure the reliability of data collection, before returning data, the edge computing box needs to locally detect the quality of the collected data each time the depth sensor is opened. If the detection fails, that is, the data quality is not high, an alarm will be issued and the parameters of the depth sensor will be recalibrated until the data quality detection passes. This embodiment mainly determines whether the target in the collected depth information (i.e., three-dimensional point cloud data) is complete and clear, and determines whether the height and shooting angle of the depth sensor need to be adjusted to ensure that the depth information obtained in the actual data collection stage is of higher quality.

[0120] After that, the edge computing box drives the depth sensor to return data through the driver module, and processes the data through the computing module, with a computing speed of no less than 5 frames per second. Then the communication module in the edge computing box sends the material level height value to the pump truck controller through the CAN interface.

[0121] In this embodiment, the opening and initialization of the CAN interface is completed when the edge computing box is powered on and turned on. If the detection module detects that the "initialization" and "start" operations of the CAN interface are unsuccessful, data cannot be sent to the pump truck controller, and the pump truck controller will trigger an abnormal alarm.

[0122] Whenever the software system logic triggers an instruction to send a signal to the pump truck controller, the CAN interface sends data to the pump truck controller at a time interval of 200ms.

[0123] Finally, the pump truck controller sends a control signal to the concrete mixer truck or its own pump drive device to regulate the unloading speed and pumping speed.

[0124] After the pump truck controller receives the height difference data returned by the edge computing box, it determines whether the material level height is abnormal based on the height difference data fed back by the edge computing box, and controls the alarm to sound an alarm when an abnormality occurs.

[0125] In addition, the edge computing box provided in this embodiment can also be set with a data analysis and judgment function. Specifically, after the edge computing box calculates the height difference information, it first compares and analyzes the height difference data with the preset height difference threshold to determine whether the current height difference is abnormal, that is, whether the material level height is abnormal. If the material level height is abnormal, an alarm suggestion information is generated, and the height difference information and the alarm suggestion information are sent to the pump truck controller together. The pump truck controller can directly adopt the alarm suggestion provided by the edge computing box, or it can determine whether the material level height is abnormal based on the height difference information provided by the edge computing box, and give the final judgment result based on the alarm suggestion provided by the edge computing box, the pump truck operating condition and other information.

[0126] It can be seen that the material level surface height detection system provided by the embodiment of the present invention can achieve centimeter-level measurement accuracy by collecting depth information in the hopper through a depth sensor, and the detection accuracy is greatly improved; an edge computing box is used to calculate the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface, and cooperates with the pump truck controller to realize material level surface height detection and material level surface height control. At the same time, since the pump truck controller can communicate with the concrete mixer truck to realize unloading control, the device can be used in scenarios such as automated construction and vehicle-pump collaborative control. In addition, the height difference data obtained in the early stage can also be returned to the background general control center for storage through wireless communication. The height difference data stored in the background general control center can provide data support for the overall digital management, digital twins and other directions of the subsequent pump truck products.

[0127] In addition, an embodiment of the present invention further provides an operating machine, which uses the above-mentioned material level surface height detection method to realize the detection and early warning functions of the material level surface height during the operation process.

[0128] It is understandable that the operating machine may be a concrete pump truck, and the material level height detection and abnormal warning of the concrete material in the hopper may be realized through the above-mentioned material level surface height detection method.

[0129] Figure 4 An example of a physical structure diagram of an electronic device is shown in FIG. Figure 4 As shown, the electronic device may include: a processor 410, a communication interface 420, a memory 430 and a communication bus 440, wherein the processor 410, the communication interface 420 and the memory 430 communicate with each other through the communication bus 440. The processor 410 may call the logic instructions in the memory 430 to execute the material level height detection method, which includes: obtaining the depth information inside the hopper; identifying the screen surface and the material level surface from the depth information, and calculating the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface; and determining the material level height according to the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface.

[0130] In addition, the logic instructions in the above-mentioned memory 430 can be implemented in the form of a software functional unit and can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium when it is sold or used as an independent product. Based on such an understanding, the technical solution of the present invention, in essence, or the part that contributes to the prior art or the part of the technical solution, can be embodied in the form of a software product, and the computer software product is stored in a storage medium, including a number of instructions for a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method described in each embodiment of the present invention. The aforementioned storage medium includes: U disk, mobile hard disk, read-only memory (ROM, Read-Only Memory), random access memory (RAM, Random Access Memory), disk or optical disk and other media that can store program codes.

[0131] On the other hand, the present invention also provides a computer program product, which includes a computer program stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, and the computer program includes program instructions. When the program instructions are executed by a computer, the computer can execute the material level height detection method provided by the above methods, and the method includes: obtaining depth information inside the hopper; identifying the screen surface and the material level surface from the depth information, and calculating the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface; determining the material level surface height according to the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface.

[0132] On the other hand, the present invention also provides a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, which, when executed by a processor, is implemented to execute the above-mentioned material level surface height detection methods, the methods comprising: obtaining depth information inside the hopper; identifying the screen surface and the material level surface from the depth information, and calculating the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface; determining the material level surface height according to the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface.

[0133] The device embodiments described above are merely illustrative, wherein the units described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and the components displayed as units may or may not be physical units, that is, they may be located in one place, or they may be distributed on multiple network units. Some or all of the modules may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the scheme of this embodiment. Ordinary technicians in this field can understand and implement it without paying creative labor.

[0134] Through the description of the above implementation methods, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that each implementation method can be implemented by means of software plus a necessary general hardware platform, and of course, it can also be implemented by hardware. Based on this understanding, the above technical solution is essentially or the part that contributes to the prior art can be embodied in the form of a software product, and the computer software product can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, such as ROM / RAM, a disk, an optical disk, etc., including a number of instructions for a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to execute the methods described in each embodiment or some parts of the embodiments.

[0135] Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present invention, rather than to limit it. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the aforementioned embodiments, those skilled in the art should understand that they can still modify the technical solutions described in the aforementioned embodiments, or make equivalent replacements for some of the technical features therein. However, these modifications or replacements do not deviate the essence of the corresponding technical solutions from the spirit and scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.

Claims

1. A material level detection method, characterized in that: include: Get the depth information inside the hopper; Identifying a screen surface and a material level surface from the depth information, and calculating a height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface; Determining the height of the material level surface according to the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface; The process of identifying a screen surface and a material level surface from the depth information and calculating a height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface includes: Obtaining the distance between a depth information acquisition device for measuring depth information and the screen surface, wherein the depth information acquisition device is a depth sensor; According to the distance between the depth information acquisition device and the screen surface and the floating value, a distance threshold range is set; Constructing a region of interest, and intercepting the depth information according to the region of interest; In the intercepted depth information, point clouds within the distance threshold range are extracted, and the number of extracted point clouds is divided by the total number of point clouds in the intercepted depth information, and the result of the division is compared with the preset proportion threshold, and the three-dimensional point cloud data of the screen surface and the three-dimensional point cloud data of the material level surface are determined according to the comparison result; Respectively calculating the distance value of the three-dimensional point cloud data of the screen surface and the distance value of the three-dimensional point cloud data of the material level surface; The distance value of the three-dimensional point cloud data of the screen surface is subtracted from the distance value of the three-dimensional point cloud data of the material level surface to obtain the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface.

2. A material level detection method according to claim 1, characterized in that: After identifying the screen surface and the material level surface from the depth information and calculating the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface, the method further includes: The height difference is compared with a preset height difference threshold to determine whether the height difference is abnormal. After determining that the height difference is abnormal, an abnormal material level height alarm is triggered.

3. A material level detection method according to claim 1, characterized in that: After identifying the screen surface and the material level surface from the depth information and calculating the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface, the method further includes: The change in the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface within a preset time period is obtained, and the material level surface height change rate is calculated.

4. A material level detection method according to claim 3, characterized in that: After obtaining the change amount of the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface within a preset time period and calculating the material level surface height change rate, the method further includes: The material level surface height change rate is compared with a preset height change rate threshold to determine the rate range in which the current material level surface height change rate is located, and the height difference is compared with a preset height difference threshold under the current rate range to determine whether the height difference is abnormal. After determining that the height difference is abnormal, the material level height abnormality alarm is triggered.

5. A material level detection method according to claim 1, characterized in that: Get the depth information inside the hopper in the following ways: Get the depth information inside the hopper from outside the hopper.

6. A material level detection device, characterized in that: include: An acquisition module, used to obtain the depth information inside the hopper; A first processing module, used for identifying a screen surface and a material level surface from the depth information, and calculating a height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface; A second processing module, used for determining the height of the material level surface according to the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface; The first processing module is specifically used to obtain the distance between the depth information acquisition device used to measure the depth information and the screen surface, the depth information acquisition device being a depth sensor; setting a distance threshold range according to the distance and floating value between the depth information acquisition device and the screen surface; constructing an area of ​​interest, and intercepting the depth information according to the area of ​​interest; extracting point clouds within the distance threshold range in the intercepted depth information, and taking the quotient of the number of extracted point clouds and the total number of point clouds in the intercepted depth information, and comparing the result of the quotient with a preset proportion threshold, and determining the three-dimensional point cloud data of the screen surface and the three-dimensional point cloud data of the material level surface according to the comparison result; respectively calculating the distance value of the three-dimensional point cloud data of the screen surface and the distance value of the three-dimensional point cloud data of the material level surface; subtracting the distance value of the three-dimensional point cloud data of the screen surface from the distance value of the three-dimensional point cloud data of the material level surface to obtain the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface.

7. A material level detection system, characterized in that: include: A collection device for collecting depth information inside the hopper; A computing device, for identifying a screen surface and a material level surface from the depth information, calculating a height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface, and determining a height of the material level surface according to the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface; The computing device is specifically used to obtain the distance between a depth information acquisition device for measuring depth information and a screen surface, wherein the depth information acquisition device is a depth sensor; a distance threshold range is set according to the distance and floating value between the depth information acquisition device and the screen surface; an area of ​​interest is constructed, and the depth information is intercepted according to the area of ​​interest; in the intercepted depth information, point clouds within the distance threshold range are extracted, and the number of extracted point clouds is divided by the total number of point clouds in the intercepted depth information, and the result of the division is compared with a preset proportion threshold, and according to the comparison result, the three-dimensional point cloud data of the screen surface and the three-dimensional point cloud data of the material level surface are determined; the distance value of the three-dimensional point cloud data of the screen surface and the distance value of the three-dimensional point cloud data of the material level surface are calculated respectively; the distance value of the three-dimensional point cloud data of the screen surface is subtracted from the distance value of the three-dimensional point cloud data of the material level surface to obtain the height difference between the material level surface and the screen surface.

8. A material level detection system according to claim 7, characterized in that: The acquisition device is a depth sensor installed above the hopper, and the computing device is an edge computing box.

9. A working machine, characterized in that: The working machine uses the material level detection method as described in any one of claims 1 to 5.

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