System and method for identifying number of steel billets

Abstract

A billet quantity identification system and method are disclosed. The billet quantity identification system includes a hanging mechanism, a laser emitter, an image acquisition module, and an image analysis module. The hanging mechanism includes an attractor, and the laser emitter is mounted on the hanging mechanism and located above the attractor. The image analysis module is coupled to the image acquisition module. By integrating the laser emitter onto the hanging mechanism, the stability of the laser emitter's illumination can be avoided due to crane swaying, thereby improving the clarity of foreground and background separation of the billets.

Claims

1. A billet quantity identification system, comprising: a hanging mechanism including a suction device configured to attract and lift multiple billets; a laser emitter disposed on the hanging mechanism and above the suction device, the laser emitter configured to irradiate the multiple billets with a laser guide line; an image capturing module configured to capture images of the multiple billets irradiated with the laser guide line to obtain an image of a billet; and an image analysis module coupled to the image capturing module, the image analysis module configured to analyze the image of the billets being lifted, excluding billets outside a suction device range defined by the suction device on the multiple billets, to obtain the quantity of a billet within the suction device range.

2. The billet quantity identification system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the hanging mechanism includes a lifting claw and a truss, the lifting claw is fixed to the truss, the attractor is disposed at the bottom of the truss, and the laser emitter is disposed at one end of the truss.

3. The billet quantity identification system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the truss includes a fixed base to which the laser emitter is pivotally connected.

4. The billet quantity identification system as described in claim 1, wherein the billet quantity identification system further includes a processor and an encoder, the processor being coupled to the encoder and the image capturing module, the encoder being configured to generate a predetermined height based on a shelf height, and the processor being configured to drive the image capturing module to take a picture after a lifting claw of the hanging mechanism is raised to the predetermined height.

5. The billet quantity identification system as described in claim 1, wherein the image analysis module is further configured to: define a foreground formed by multiple moving billets among the plurality of billets being attracted and pulled up by the attractor as the range of the attractor, and define a background formed by multiple stationary billets among the plurality of billets, wherein the laser auxiliary line forms a discontinuous portion between the foreground and the background.

6. The billet quantity identification system as claimed in claim 1, wherein an angle is formed between an illumination direction of the laser emitter and a shooting direction of the image capturing module, the angle being greater than 10 degrees.

7. A method for identifying the quantity of steel billets, comprising: adsorbing a plurality of steel billets by a suction device of a hanging mechanism; irradiating the plurality of steel billets with a laser auxiliary line through a laser emitter, wherein the laser emitter is disposed in the hanging mechanism and located above the suction device; capturing images of the plurality of steel billets irradiated with the laser auxiliary line using an image capturing module to obtain an image of a steel billet; and analyzing the image of the steel billets being lifted by an image analysis module to exclude steel billets outside a suction device range defined by the suction device on the plurality of steel billets, thereby obtaining the quantity of steel billets within the suction device range.

8. The billet quantity identification method as described in claim 7, wherein the image analysis module analyzes the billet image of the multiple billets being hoisted, and excludes billets outside the range defined by the suction device on the multiple billets, in order to obtain the quantity of billets within the range of the suction device, comprising: defining a foreground formed by multiple moving billets being attracted and pulled up by the suction device to form a foreground as the range of the suction device, multiple stationary billets forming a background, and the laser auxiliary line forming a discontinuous portion between the foreground and the background.

9. The billet quantity identification method as described in claim 8, wherein the image analysis module is used to analyze the billet image of the hoisting of the plurality of billets, and billets outside the range defined by the suction device on the plurality of billets are excluded to obtain the quantity of the billets within the range of the suction device, comprising: performing laser intensity analysis on the laser auxiliary line in the foreground to obtain a billet feature distribution map, and estimating the quantity of the billets based on the billet feature distribution map.

10. The billet quantity identification method as claimed in claim 7, wherein before using the image capturing module to photograph the plurality of billets irradiated with the laser auxiliary line to obtain the billet image, the billet quantity identification method further comprises: using an encoder to generate a predetermined height based on a shelf height; and when a lifting claw of the hanging mechanism is raised to the predetermined height, the image capturing module begins to photograph the plurality of billets irradiated with the laser auxiliary line to obtain the billet image.

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