Remote Vision
System
Broken teeth are
bad news, whether they're in your mouth or on a huge oil
sands mining shovel.
When a tooth breaks off a shovel bucket, it can cause serious damage to tools,
conveyor belts, pumps and other equipment if it enters the downstream processing
system. Missing teeth also result in inefficient bucket performance and costly
downtime.
The Alberta
Research Council worked jointly with Motion Metrics Inc. of Vancouver to develop
a system to detect tooth breakage when it occurs. The system uses a video camera
mounted on the cab of the shovel to capture the condition of the teeth as the
bucket comes within camera range on each upswing. Using specialized computer
algorithms, the system compares the bucket's toothline against a base case of an
intact toothline. If a tooth is missing, an alarm warns the shovel operator to
discard the load, thereby preventing the tooth from entering the downstream
process and causing damage. The sensor is estimated to save the industry
$250,000 a year.
Alberta Research Council. Alberta Research Council 2000 Annual Report. Edmonton: Alberta
Research Council, 2000 with permission from the Alberta
Research Council.
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