Automatic Reading System for Analog Instruments Based on Computer Vision and Inspection Robot for Power Plant

In this paper, an automatic reading system for analog instruments has been designed for monitoring in power plants. In a general automatic reading system, there are many limitations to the reading correctness and system robustness such as the high cost for the reason that there is only one instrument could be monitored by a single system, the strict restrict of the camera angle, and being not suitable for instruments with dense scales and so on. We present some solutions to overcome these limitations. Firstly, we combine a mobile inspection robot with an image capture device and the image processing method to cut the cost of the monitoring of analog instruments in power plants. Then, we use Hough transform and perspective transform to correct the geometric distortion of images caused by camera angle. Eventually, we get the result of dense scaled instruments based on polar transform. Experiments show that our system performs quite well, and the reading error is less than the results which obtained from the general automatic reading system.

[1]  A. K. Dubey,et al.  Architecture of Noninvasive Real Time Visual Monitoring System for Dial Type Measuring Instrument , 2013, IEEE Sensors Journal.

[2]  Walter G. Kropatsch,et al.  Automatic reading of analog display instruments , 1994, Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Pattern Recognition.

[3]  Ping Fu,et al.  Development of an automatic reading method and software for pointer instruments , 2017, 2017 First International Conference on Electronics Instrumentation & Information Systems (EIIS).

[4]  Francisco André Corrêa Alegria,et al.  Automatic calibration of analog and digital measuring instruments using computer vision , 2000, IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas..

[5]  Lv Ming,et al.  Reading recognition method of analog measuring instruments based on improved hough transform , 2011, IEEE 2011 10th International Conference on Electronic Measurement & Instruments.

[6]  Jian Huang,et al.  Modeling and Velocity Control for a Novel Narrow Vehicle Based on Mobile Wheeled Inverted Pendulum , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology.

[7]  Shutao Zhao,et al.  Research on Remote Meter Automatic Reading Based on Computer Vision , 2005, 2005 IEEE/PES Transmission & Distribution Conference & Exposition: Asia and Pacific.

[8]  Masanori Sugisaka.  Working robots for nuclear power plant desasters , 2011, 5th IEEE International Conference on Digital Ecosystems and Technologies (IEEE DEST 2011).

[9]  Jian Huang,et al.  Human-Walking-Intention-Based Motion Control of an Omnidirectional-Type Cane Robot , 2013, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics.

[10]  Zhang Min,et al.  The research on auto-recognition method for analogy measuring instruments , 2010, 2010 International Conference on Computer, Mechatronics, Control and Electronic Engineering.

[11]  Bostjan Likar,et al.  New Robot for Power Line Inspection , 2008, 2008 IEEE Conference on Robotics, Automation and Mechatronics.

[12]  Lei Han,et al.  A mobile robot for inspection of substation equipments , 2010, 2010 1st International Conference on Applied Robotics for the Power Industry.

[13]  Huosheng Hu,et al.  Real-time landmark modelling for visual-guided walking robots , 2011, Int. J. Comput. Appl. Technol..

[14]  Wang Qi,et al.  Automatic alignment system based on center point recognition of analog measuring instruments dial , 2013, IECON 2013 - 39th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society.

[15]  Weigong Zhang,et al.  Auto-recognition Method for Pointer-type Meter Based on Binocular Vision , 2014, J. Comput..

[16]  Yu Qiao,et al.  An image-based intelligent system for pointer instrument reading , 2014, 2014 4th IEEE International Conference on Information Science and Technology.

[17]  Yong Zhao,et al.  A robust and automatic recognition system of analog instruments in power system by using computer vision , 2016 .

[18]  Jian Huang,et al.  Set-Membership-Based Fault Detection and Isolation for Robotic Assembly of Electrical Connectors , 2018, IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering.

[19]  Dongbing Gu,et al.  Robust path tracking control for quadrotors with experimental validation , 2018, Int. J. Model. Identif. Control..

[20]  Jeong Ho Lee,et al.  Bridge inspection robot system with machine vision , 2009 .

[21]  Ashwani Kumar Dubey,et al.  Real Time Visual Inspection System(RTVIS) for calibration of mechanical gauges , 2011, 2011 IEEE Recent Advances in Intelligent Computational Systems.

[22]  Stefano Stramigioli,et al.  Development of an inspection robot for small diameter gas distribution mains , 2011, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[23]  Swarna Ramesh,et al.  Automatic interpretation of analog dials in driver's instrumentation panel , 2017, 2017 Third International Conference on Advances in Electrical, Electronics, Information, Communication and Bio-Informatics (AEEICB).