Industrial image processing
Development of a modular industrial image processing solution
Some time ago, in cooperation with Polytec, we developed a system for thermographic monitoring of production processes based on smart IR cameras. Polytec, our industrial partner for this project and solution provider in the field of industrial sensor technology and thermography solutions, contributed its extensive know-how to this project. The development took place as part of a pilot project.
The decision to use cameras was quickly made in favor of the smart infrared cameras from AT-Automation. These cameras already have a configurable display and evaluation software that can trigger an alarm at adjustable limit values for maximum and average temperature data.
The requirements
The aim of the project was to develop an integrated software solution that combines the data from different cameras and other sensors and processes it graphically in an HMI. The user should be able to make various settings and evaluate measurement data. The most important requirement was to guarantee the reliability and safety of the overall system at the highest possible level.
A modular evaluation and display system was to be developed on the basis of existing open source components, which can be easily expanded with additional cameras and sensors. The smart cameras from AT-Automation are already capable of triggering an alarm if temperature limits are exceeded and have a web interface with which the camera images and measurement data can be viewed. However, the cameras are not designed to communicate with each other or to clearly visualize the images from multiple cameras in a dashboard. Our aim was therefore to create a dashboard on which the user can clearly display several cameras simultaneously and obtain a good overview of the measurement data. In addition, the dashboard should be planned when it is created so that it is easy to add more cameras or other useful sensors later on.
Our implementation
We opted for a solution in which we developed a modular platform. This platform implements the individual functional components as interchangeable modules and collects all information on a central dashboard. For example, a new camera type or sensor can be easily integrated into the system by adding a corresponding module.
It was important to us not to replace the smart evaluation functions of the AT cameras, but to complement them in a meaningful way. We directly incorporate the evaluation and alarm functions of the cameras and display the data on our dashboard. In parallel, further evaluation algorithms can be implemented on the server side to supplement the capabilities of the smart cameras (e.g. Ki image evaluation, classification, prediction, etc.).
Our software not only evaluates images and sensors, but also constantly monitors the functionality of all components. Alarms and early warnings are visualized via the dashboard and can be reported via dedicated alarm lines.
In this way, redundant and therefore reliable alerting can easily be guaranteed.
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Info about the pictures:
Image 1: Intelligent thermal imaging camera for industrial use. Thanks to its compact dimensions, it can also be easily accommodated in confined spaces. (Author: Polytec)