A method for optoelectronic control of liquid volume in a tank
S.A. Borminsky, A.V. Solntseva, B.V. Skvortsov

 

Samara National Research University, Samara, Russia

Full text of article: Russian language.

 PDF

Abstract:
The article describes a method for optoelectronic control of liquid volume in a tank. Measurements can be performed remotely without tank calibration. The method is based on the fact that there is a near-wall region where the liquid surface has a higher reflectivity. This region occurs due to surface tension or minor ripples. With this method, first, an image of liquid surface is taken with a photo-camera. Then, a near-wall liquid-air boundary is identified in the image before calculating the current area of the liquid surface. When the tank is filled for the first time, the device records the liquid area for every level. A calibration table is automatically created without applying additional tools. To avoid the error caused by inaccurate photo-camera positioning, a special mathematical model is devised. It uses reference marks made on tank walls horizontally. An algorithm for recognition of liquid boundaries in the image is developed. Measurements of the liquid volume conducted using a laboratory prototype have shown the reduced error to be within 0.5%, provided that the digital photo-camera is not rigidly fixed.

Keywords:
optical measurement, control of liquid volume, transformation of coordinates, reference marks.

Citation:
Borminsky SA, Solntseva AV, Skvortsov BV. A method for optoelectronic control of liquid volume in a tank. Computer Optics 2016; 40(4): 552-559. DOI: 10.18287/2412-6179-2016-40-4-552-559.

References:

  1. Leonidova ZE, Mukaev RU. Liquid's level sensors with matrix signal receiver [in Russian]. Industrial Automatic Process Control Systems and controllers 2012; 6: 53-58.
  2. Solntseva AV, Skvortsov BV, Borminsky SA. Remote control methods of liquid products' parameters in a pool of tanks [in Russian]. Samara: Samara Scientific Center of RAS; 2015. ISBN 978-5-93424-749-3.
  3. Graevsky OS, Badeev AV. A new method of liquid's level measurement [in Russian]. International symposium works “Reliability and Quality”. Penza: Penza State University Publisher; 2009; 1: 34-36.
  4. Chakravarthy S, Sharma R, Kasturi R. Non-contact level sensing technique using computer vision. IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement 2002; 51(2): 353-361. DOI: 10.1109/19.997837.
  5. Leonidova ZE, Mukaev RU. A new method and device of liquid's level measurement [in Russian]. Patent RU 2332644, filed of Mar 27, 2007, published of Aug 28, 2008.
  6. Skvortsov BV, Blinov DI, Borminsky SA. Lazer-television level gauge [in Russian]. Patent RU 151875, filed of Sept 23, 2014, published of Apr 20, 2015.
  7. Skvortsov BV, Borminsky SA, Solntseva AV, Blinov DI. Method of liquid's mass measurement in tanks [in Russian]. Patent RU 2497085, filed of Nov 22, 2011, published of Oct 27, 2013.
  8. Borminsky SA. Device for optical measurement of liquid's level and volume in tank [in Russian]. Patent RU 156459, published of Nov 10, 2015.
  9. Borminsky SA, Skvortsov BV, Solntseva AV. Liquid fuels quantity and quality measurement methods [in Russian]. Samara: Samara Scientific Center of RAS Publisher; 2012. ISBN 978-5-93424-607-6.
  10. Sivuhin D.V. General physics. Volume 4. Optics [in Russian]. Moscow: “Fizmatlit” Publisher; 2006.
  11. Wu J-H, Lin F-P, Hsiao Y-H, Chung T-L. Liquid level detection method. Patent US 8184848 B2, filed of Jun 17, 2009, published of May 22, 2012.
  12. Spitsyn VG, Bolotova YuA, Phan NH, Bui TTT. Using a Haar wavelet transform, principal component analysis and neural networks for OCR in the presence of impulse noise. Computer Optics 2016; 40(2): 249-257. DOI: 10.18287/2412-6179-2016-40-2-249-257.
  13. Krasilnikov N.N. Digital processing of 2D and 3D images [in Russian]. Saint-Petersburg: “BHV-Petersburg” Publisher; 2011. ISBN: 978-5-9775-0700-4.
  14. Zhimbueva LD. Method of determining the total distortion digital images. Computer Optics 2011; 35(3): 347-355.
© 2009, IPSI RAS
Institution of Russian Academy of Sciences, Image Processing Systems Institute of RAS, Russia, 443001, Samara, Molodogvardeyskaya Street 151; E-mail: journal@computeroptics.ru; Phones: +7 (846) 332-56-22, Fax: +7 (846) 332-56-20