JP2001021321A - Instrument for measuring height of trollfy wire supporting insulator - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily measure the heights of trolley wire supporting insulators on a measurement vehicle by providing a laser light source, etc., which upwardly emits a luminous flux having a prescribed width from the measurement vehicle in a direction which is substantially perpendicular to the running direction of the vehicle. SOLUTION: A laser light source 12 upwardly emits a luminous flux having a prescribed width from a measurement vehicle 20 in a direction which is substantially perpendicular to the running direction of the vehicle 20. An image pickup device 12 which is attached to the vehicle 20 in an upside-down state picks up the videos of trolley wire supporting insulators 4 and 5 by receiving the reflected light of the luminous flux from the insulators 4 and 5. Then an inverted objective picture is obtained by binarizing the videos of the lower peripheral sections of the insulators 4 and 5 obtained from the image pickup device 13. The insulators 4 and 5 are discriminated by discriminating whether or not the outline coordinates of the insulators 4 and 5 fall within a certain range and the area of the objective picture falls within a prescribed areal range on the basis of the vortex of the objective picture when the picture is displayed on a screen. The heights of the insulators 4 and 5 are calculated based on the vertical coordinate positions of the vortex from the discriminated pictures of the insulators 4 and 5.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a trolley wire support insulator height measuring apparatus, and more particularly, to a trolley wire supporting insulator which is provided at an air section which is a connecting portion between trolley wires.
The present invention relates to a trolley wire support insulator height measuring device capable of easily measuring the height of a trolley wire support insulator used for supporting and fixing a trolley wire to a support column on an inspection vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, detecting the height of a trolley wire support insulator has been an important factor in measuring the height of trolley wires at an air section, which is a connection portion between trolley wires. In addition, since two trolley wires run in parallel in the air section, there is a risk that the lowermost end of the insulator will collide with the pantograph when the height of the insulator decreases. Therefore, it is necessary to measure the height of the insulator. Conventionally, the height measurement of insulators is performed manually, and measurement of trolley wire wear and bending metal fittings are now performed on inspection vehicles by camera photography. There is a demand that the height of the insulator can be measured on an inspection vehicle.

[0003]

Therefore, it is conceivable to measure the height of the insulator by photographing with a camera. in this case,
It is preferable that the height of the trolley wire support insulator is measured by a camera from an oblique lateral direction.However, the measurement target is located at a high position, and in the air section where the trolley wire and the trolley wire are connected, The trolley wire is in the way, making it difficult to shoot the camera obliquely. In addition, since the camera cannot be set sufficiently in the lateral direction from the inspection vehicle, it is difficult to obtain an image of the insulator from an oblique direction. Furthermore, since various images are captured by camera shooting, the load of processing to extract insulator images from them becomes large, making it difficult to perform height measurement on an inspection car in a short time and high-speed image processing and calculation Processing is required. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve such a problem of the prior art, and the height of the trolley wire support insulator can be easily measured on an inspection vehicle. It is to provide a measuring device.

[0004]

A feature of the trolley wire supporting insulator height measuring device of the present invention for achieving the above object is that the trolley wire supporting insulator height measuring device supports the trolley wire. A laser light source that generates a luminous flux of a predetermined width in a direction substantially perpendicular to the traveling direction of the inspection vehicle upward from the inspection vehicle, and a trolley wire support insulator that is mounted on the inspection vehicle with its top and bottom inverted. An imaging device that receives the reflected light of the luminous flux and captures the image, and an image of the lower peripheral portion of the trolley wire support insulator obtained from this imaging device is binarized to obtain a target image that is inverted upside down, With respect to each contour coordinate position on the horizontal scanning line based on the vertex of the image when the target image is displayed on the screen, the current contour coordinate position is within a certain range with respect to the previous contour coordinate position, and the area of the target image is Within a predetermined area range Means for determining an insulator by determining the height of a trolley wire support insulator based on a coordinate position of a vertex in a vertical image on the insulator image determined by the insulator image determining means Calculation means.

[0005]

As described above, the image pickup device (camera) is installed upward from the inspection vehicle, and the image of the insulator is turned upside down to obtain a binarized image. A bow-shaped curved image having a substantially symmetrical thickness at the top can be obtained as an image of the lower peripheral portion of the insulator. Thus, the insulator image can be captured as a characteristic image, and the insulator portion can be easily determined accordingly. As the determination, the lowermost end of the insulator is set as the vertex, and the bending state is determined based on the contour coordinate position of the target image based on the vertex. The state of the thick bow is determined as the area. Thus, it is possible to easily determine the insulator image. In accordance with this concept, the insulator image determining means is provided as in the above configuration, and each contour coordinate position on the horizontal scanning line is set to the nearer contour coordinate position on the basis of the vertex of this image when the target image is displayed on the screen. On the other hand, when the current outline coordinate position falls within a certain range and the area of the target image is within a predetermined area range, it is determined to be an insulator. If the image of the insulator can be extracted, the height of the lowermost end of the insulator can be obtained from the relationship between the position of the lowermost image (coordinate position of the vertex on the screen) where the camera is installed and the camera installation position. . As a result, the process of height measurement from the captured image can be performed in real time and easily at substantially the imaging speed of the camera, and the height measurement process can be realized by a relatively simple process on the inspection vehicle.

[0006]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment to which a height measuring apparatus for a trolley wire supporting insulator according to the present invention is applied, and FIG.
4 is a flowchart of the height measurement process, FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the insulator determination process in the height measurement process, and FIG.
Is an explanatory diagram of the actual height reference table, FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the image processing, and FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the relationship between the trolley wire support insulator provided at the air section and the inspection vehicle. As shown in FIG. 6, in the air section,
The trolley wire 1 and the trolley wire 2 run in parallel at substantially the same height, and the trolley wire 1 is supported and fixed to the support column 3 via a plurality of insulators 4, 4,. The trolley wire 2 is a support post 3
And is supported and fixed to a support column (not shown) on the opposite side with the rail interposed therebetween, and is set as a starting point as a takeover trolley wire via one or a plurality of insulators 5, 5,. The trolley wires 1 and 2 supported by the insulator 4 and the insulator 5 have substantially the same height and run parallel to the upper part of the rail for a certain distance at intervals of about several tens of centimeters. At this time, two trolley wires come in contact at the same time. In this case, the height of the lowermost ends of the insulators 4 and 5 becomes a problem.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 denotes a trolley wire supporting insulator height measuring device for measuring the heights of the insulators 4 and 5, which comprises an image pickup timing detecting sensor 11, a laser light source 12, It comprises an ITV camera (two-dimensional CCD camera, hereinafter referred to as a camera) 13, an A / D conversion circuit (A / D) 14, and an image data processing device 15, which are mounted upside down on the roof of the car 20. You. Here, the relationship between the image capturing timing detection sensor 11, the laser light source 12, and the camera 13 is shown in FIG.
0, the camera 13 is pointed hollow at an elevation angle of around 70 degrees. On the other hand, the laser light source 12
Is directed to the hollow at an elevation angle of about 80 degrees at a position almost symmetrical with the camera 13 on the opposite side of the insulator 4 (or the insulator 5, hereinafter described as the insulator 4). (See FIG. 1) in a width that covers the insulators 4 and 5.

[0008] The image pickup timing detection sensor 11 receives the reflected light from the lower surface of the insulator 4 at a predetermined level, operates the shutter of the camera 13 and simultaneously measures the height of the insulator of the image data processing device 15. Start As a result, a lower contour image of the insulator 4 is collected by the camera 13 and the height measurement process is started. It is to be noted that a configuration may be adopted in which an image is always collected at an air section without providing the image collection timing detection sensor 11. In this case, the image pickup timing detection sensor 11 is unnecessary. Image acquisition timing detection sensor 11
Is a photodiode 111 and an amplifier (AMP) 1 inside.
12 and a comparator (COM) 113 are built in, the threshold level is adjusted by the comparator 113, or the sensitivity is adjusted so as not to respond to the reflected light from the trolley wire. As a result, the detection signal d from which noise has been removed is output.

Here, assuming that the image picked up by the camera 13 is a monochrome image having 640 × 400 dots, the first is
The image data for the frame is A / D converted by the A / D 14 and is taken into the image data processing device 15 which has received the detection signal d. As described above, since the camera 13 is installed upside down, the upper part of the captured image is on the lower side of the screen. The image data processing device 15 includes an MPU 151
, A memory 152, a CRT display 153, an image memory 154, and an interface 155, and these circuits are interconnected by a bus 156.

The memory 152 has a binarization processing program 2
1 and a noise removal processing program 22, a structure removal processing program 23, an insulator image determination program 24, and an insulator actual height calculation program 25.
Is temporarily recorded in the image memory 154. Further, the memory 152 is provided with an actual height reference table 26 for obtaining the actual height of the insulator from the coordinate position of the lowest point of the insulator 4. An external storage device 157 such as a hard disk connected via the interface 155 is also provided therein, and the measurement results are stored in the external storage device 1.
57 is stored according to the running distance. The travel distance is measured by a distance pulse. The detection of the measurement position and the like are well known and will not be described.

When this program is executed by the MPU 151, the binarization processing program 21
One frame (or one field) of data stored in 54 is compared with a predetermined threshold value, binarized, and stored in the image memory 154 again. By this binarization processing, reflected images of a certain level or less are excluded from detection targets. When this program is executed by the MPU 151, the noise removal processing program 22 generates an image corresponding to so-called noise based on pixels (particularly the number of pixels in the horizontal direction) from the binarized data in the image memory 154. Noise is removed from the image data in the image memory 154 by template processing as a template image.

The structure removal processing program 23 prepares, for example, an image in which a trolley line is crossed by a laser as a template image, passes the template image through one screen image, and substantially matches the template image at that time. If there is a matching image, it is removed from the image. For example,
5 (c) to 5 (f), and has an image of a structure other than the insulator as shown in FIGS. 5 (c) to 5 (f). Remove the image of the object. FIG. 5C shows a case where a metal fitting image K and a trolley wire image T are collected in the image memory 154 in addition to the insulator image G. The line image T is removed as structure noise. FIG. 5D is a structural noise image of the trolley wire T and the bending fitting A, and FIG.
(E) is an image B of a tunnel wall or the like, and FIG.
Is an image of the trolley wire connector section C. These images are removed from the collected images by template processing by executing the structure removal processing program 23. Finally, a curved bow-shaped insulator image G as shown in FIG. 5C is left. In each of FIGS. 5A and 5B, the X coordinate (horizontal scanning direction) of the screen is perpendicular to the inspection vehicle 20, and the Y coordinate (vertical scanning direction) of the screen corresponds to the height direction of the insulator 4. ing.

The insulator image determination program 24 further includes:
A program for discriminating an insulator from an image remaining after the binarization process and the structure removal process, for example, an image including a structure as shown in FIGS. 5C is a program for determining whether the insulator image G in FIG. 5C is really an insulator image. When this program is executed by the MPU 151, each horizontal scanning line is extracted from the noise-free image. The shape of the insulator is determined based on the coordinates of the leading edge and the trailing edge on the horizontal scanning line of the image with reference to the coordinate position of the vertex of the image obtained in the image data binarized to black and white. In the case of an insulator, this is a thick bow-shaped curved image and a binarized image that is turned upside down. Therefore, for each contour coordinate position on the horizontal scanning line based on the vertex of the image when the target image is displayed on the screen, the current contour coordinate position must be within a certain range with respect to the previous contour coordinate position. Is determined to be an insulator when the area of is within a predetermined area range. That is, the difference between the next horizontal scan line and the edge pixel coordinates of the leading edge and the trailing edge taken in the horizontal scan line of the image portion is calculated, and the difference is within a certain range (in a bow shape). This is because the image is curved and substantially bilaterally symmetric with respect to the vertex of the image.) In addition, when the area of the image portion is within a certain reference range, the insulator is determined. Although the details will be described later, it is to determine a change in curvature of the outer shape of the insulator image. As a result, an arcuate insulator image G in which the top and bottom are inverted as shown in FIG. Insulator actual height calculation program 25
When this program is executed by the MPU 151, the coordinates of the vertices of the insulator are detected, and the actual height of the insulator is calculated from the coordinates by referring to the actual height reference table 26 (see FIG. 4).

Hereinafter, the insulator height calculation processing will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, upon receiving the activation signal of the image capturing timing detection sensor 11, the image data processing device 15 first loads the data from the A / D 14 into the image memory 154 (step 101). Then, binarization processing is performed on the collected image data by calling the binarization processing program 21 (step 102), and then, noise reduction processing is called by calling the noise removal processing program 22 (step 103). Further, the structure is removed by calling the structure removal processing program 23 (step 10).
4). Usually, since various images are collected at the time, here, it is assumed that there are a plurality of clusters of images,
In order to sequentially determine whether or not the image is an insulator image, a labeling process for giving a name corresponding to each image block in the final image is performed (step 105). Then, for each labeled target image, it is really an insulator image G
It is determined whether or not (step 106). Here, YES is determined, and when it is determined that the insulator is the insulator, the actual image is referred from the Y coordinate Yo of the coordinates (Xo, Yo) of the vertex P of the insulator on the display screen with reference to the actual height reference table 26 in FIG. Find the height Y above. Finally, the height H of the insulator is calculated by Y + Yr (step 107). Note that Yr
Is a reference height (see FIG. 1) viewed from the ground at the upper end of the display screen D of the camera 13 determined on the inspection vehicle 20.
Note that it is determined that the insulator is not an insulator in the determination of step 106 (N
If O), this process ends.

Next, the details of the steps of the insulator determination processing 106 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 3 and FIG. 5B. FIG. 5B shows a portion of the image G of the insulator 4 obtained as a result of the determination in step 106.
As an insulator determination process, for the image G when the target image of the insulator 4 is displayed on the screen from the image data in the image memory 154, first, the X coordinate Xo of the vertex is detected, and the coordinates of the vertex P are stored in the memory 152 ( Xo, Yo) are stored (step 201). Next, the X coordinate of the edge of the target image (the insulator image G) is detected and stored (step 2).
02). This is because, as shown in FIG.
Is a process of detecting the leading edge edge coordinate XS1 and the trailing edge edge coordinate XE1 of the X coordinate on the next horizontal scanning line with the horizontal scanning line as a start point. Further, in the next horizontal scanning line, the leading edge coordinate XS2 and the trailing edge edge coordinate XE2 in the X coordinate are detected, and the target image occupies more than tens of horizontal lines to several tens of lines (in FIG. Edge coordinates of five horizontal lines are detected for convenience. Further, in this case, when there is an edge of the curved portion inside the insulator 4, the edge coordinates are set as the inside edge, and the rear edge and the front edge are X coordinates of XEa and XEa, respectively.
It is detected as XSa (see FIG. 5B). The coordinates of the edge are points corresponding to the first pixel position on the horizontal line where the black level changes to the white level, assuming that the image portion is white.

Next, first, the vertex coordinates X of the image G of the insulator 4 are set.
The total number N of the horizontal scanning lines in the target image (the insulator image G) from the point o until the edge cannot be detected is calculated (step 203). Then, it is determined whether or not the total number N of horizontal scanning lines is within a predetermined range N1 to N2 as the insulator (step 204). Here, when the value falls outside the predetermined range and the NO condition is satisfied, the process is terminated. If the result is YES, then the area S is calculated from the total number of pixels from the edge coordinates of the insulator image G (target image) in each horizontal scanning line at the X coordinate (step 20).
5). Next, the area S is within a predetermined range S1 to S2 as an insulator.
Is determined (step 206).
Here, when the NO condition is satisfied, this processing ends.

If YES in step 206, the difference ΔXSi = XSi−XSi + 1 between the leading edge coordinates XSi is first calculated for the edge of the contour of the immediately preceding horizontal scanning line (step 207). The difference ΔXSi is stored in the memory 152 (step 208), and it is determined whether the difference ΔXSi is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value Xr (step 209). This is to determine the curvature of the contour edge of the insulator 4, and in the case of an insulator image, the contour increase from the horizontal scanning line should increase within a certain range. As a result, a similar image having a similar shape to the contour image viewed from the leading edge is excluded. Therefore, if the NO condition is satisfied here, this process ends. In this case, when there are edges XSa, XSb... Of the curved portion inside the insulator 4, the predetermined value Xr is replaced by Xi, and the determination in step 209 is performed. However, Xr <Xi. Note that these predetermined values Xr and Xi are:
It is determined based on the actually measured value.

If YES in step 209, it is next determined whether or not ΔXSi is larger than -M (step 210). In the case of an insulator image, its contour increases and does not become negative, but this may be slightly negative depending on image noise or sampling conditions, so this determination is made. For insulators, a large negative value (-M) above a certain level
It does not become. Therefore, if the NO condition is satisfied here, this process ends. Next, it is determined whether or not the number N of horizontal scanning lines included in the target image has all been completed (step 211). If NO, i is set to the next horizontal scanning line (i).
= I + 1) (step 212) and step 2
07, while updating i, the difference ΔXSi is sequentially stored in the memory via step 207, and the determination in step 209 is repeated. Then, the difference ΔXSi is equal to a predetermined value Xr (or Xr
i) or more, and if the NO condition is satisfied in the determination of step 209, this process ends. This process is also ended when the answer to step 210 is NO. In this case, the calculation in step 207 includes the coordinates Xo of the vertex P. Therefore, the first operation is ΔXSo = XSo−X
S1 is calculated, and the difference ΔX
So will be determined.

If the determination in step 211 is YES, it is determined whether or not the trailing edge is to be determined (step 21).
3) Since the answer is NO at first, step 207 is selected instead of step 207 at this time.
Moving to step 207a, the difference ΔX between the trailing edge coordinates XEi
Ei = XEi + 1−XEi is calculated (step 207a).
This time, the difference ΔXEi is stored in the memory 152 (step 2
08) In the same manner as above, it is determined whether the difference ΔXEi is equal to or greater than a predetermined value Xr (step 209). In the determination of the trailing edge coordinates, step 20 is replaced with step 20 described above.
The process returns to step 7a. Then, in the same manner as described above, if the NO conditions are satisfied in the determinations of steps 209 and 210, this processing ends. As a result, a similar image having a similar shape to the contour image viewed from the trailing edge is excluded. In this case, similarly to the above, the edge X of the curved portion inside the insulator 4 is used.
When there are Ea, XEb,..., The predetermined value Xr is replaced with Xi, and the determination in step 209 is performed.

In this manner, the trailing edge is determined in step 213 to be YES, and the process proceeds to step 214 when the leading edge and the trailing edge are determined. Here, the difference L between the leading edge and the trailing edge of the N-th line, which is the last horizontal scan line of the target image, is calculated as the difference from the respective coordinates with the vertex as a starting point (step 214), and the difference L
Is smaller than Lr (L ≦ Lr) (step 21).
5). This process ends if the NO condition is satisfied in this determination. Since the last line of the image is equal to or less than a certain value and the insulator has an arc shape, the distance from the leading edge to the trailing edge of the last line is equal to or less than a certain value. If not, it is not an insulator. Note that the determination in step 215 may be made such that the minimum value of the insulator on the last line of the bow is Lq, the maximum value of the insulator is Lr, and the range is determined as Lq ≦ L ≦ Lr to determine whether the insulator is used. Good. Now, in step 215, YE
When it becomes S, the next time, as a second-order difference value,
Are sequentially read out and ΔΔXSi = Δ
XSi-ΔXSi + 1 is calculated (step 216), and the difference Δ
ΔXSi is stored in the memory 152 (step 217),
It is determined whether the difference ΔΔXSi is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value ΔXr (step 218). Here, when the NO condition is satisfied, this process ends. As a result, the contour image viewed from the leading edge, which changes stepwise within a predetermined range along the curvature, is extracted, and the others are excluded here as non-insulators.
Then, if YES here, it is determined whether or not all horizontal scanning lines are completed (step 219), and if NO, i is updated as the next horizontal scanning line (i = i +
1) Do (Step 220), return to Step 216,
While updating i, the difference ΔΔXSi is sequentially stored in the memory via step 217, and the determination in step 218 is repeated.

If the determination in step 219 is YES,
At first, it is determined whether or not the trailing edge determination is performed in the same manner as in the step 213 (not shown). In this case, the result is NO. In this case, the step 216a is selected instead of the step 216, and Transition, trailing edge coordinates XEi
The difference ΔΔXEi = ΔXEi−1−XEi is calculated (step 216a). This time, the difference ΔXEi is stored in the memory 152 (step 217), and it is determined whether or not the difference ΔXEi is equal to or larger than the predetermined value Xr as described above (step 218). In the determination of the trailing edge coordinates, the process returns to step 216a instead of step 216. Then, similarly to the above, if the NO condition is satisfied in the determination of step 217, this processing ends. As a result, an image that changes stepwise within a predetermined range along the curvature of the contour image viewed from the trailing edge is extracted, and other images are excluded.

Next, if "YES" in the step 219,
The stored ΔΔXSi is read out to the memory 152, and the absolute value of ΔΔXSi│K and the absolute value of ΔΔXEi│ΔΔXEi│
<K is determined (step 221). NO in this determination
When the condition is satisfied, this processing ends. In other words, a secondary difference value whose absolute value is larger than the predetermined value N means that the curvature is not a characteristic that the curvature decreases sequentially. Therefore, it is not an insulator. If the result of the above is YES in step 221, the image G of the insulator is determined, and the process returns to 107 in the flowchart of FIG. Then, the vertex coordinates (Xo, Yo)
, The actual height of the coordinates Yo is calculated with reference to the actual height reference table 26, and the insulator height is calculated by Y = Yo + Yr.

When the result of the determination in step 221 is YES in step 221, then ΔΔ
ΔXSi counts a negative value. The count value is <Q
Should be added. This process ends if the NO condition is satisfied in this determination. When the negative value of the secondary difference value is equal to or more than the predetermined number P, it is not a problem in image capturing,
This is because the actual thing has a negative polarity, which means that the curvature is not a characteristic of gradually decreasing. Therefore, this case is not an insulator. Similarly, then obtain ΔΔX
Ei counts negative values. The count value is determined to be <Q. This process ends if the NO condition is satisfied in this determination. This is also the same reason as described above. By further adding such a determination, the determination of the insulator becomes more reliable. By the way, step 204, step 206, step 2
09, step 210, step 215, step 21
8, and in each process of step 221, the result is NO, and when this process is completed, the following process is performed. Returning to the processing of FIG. 2, if there is still a block to be determined that has been subjected to the labeling processing in step 105 of FIG. 2, as indicated by the dotted line, the processing returns to step 105 and another block is labeled. In step 106, the insulator determination process is performed again. If there is no such remaining block, NO in step 106
, The process ends as indicated by the dotted line. At this time, as will be described later, when the camera 13 is constantly operated in the imaging state and the insulator is determined, step 10 is performed.
Returning to 1, the process continues and continues until the power is turned off.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the actual height reference table 26. In the image taken by the camera 13, the camera is set from the lower side to the upper side, so that the ratio of the distance for one horizontal scanning line is different between the upper side and the lower side, and does not have a linear relationship. . Also, here
Since the top and bottom are reversed, on the display screen D, the height is compressed from top to bottom with respect to the height of one horizontal scanning line above the image. In consideration of this relationship, the height corresponding to the actual horizontal scanning line is shown.
It is an actual height reference table 26. The column 26a shows the coordinate value of the Y coordinate, and the column 26b shows the actual height of the vertex P with respect to the coordinate value Yo.

As described above, in the embodiment, the difference value Δ
After updating i for each of XSi = XSi + 1−XSi and performing the determination to the end, the process shifts to the determination of the difference value ΔXEi = XEi + 1−XEi. This is because the difference value ΔXSi = XSi + 1 -X
The calculation and determination of the difference value of Si and the difference value ΔXEi = XEi + 1−XEi may be sequentially performed for the same value of i, and the value of i may be updated afterwards. In the embodiment, the difference ΔXEi is represented by ΔXEi =
XEi + 1−XEi, which is calculated as ΔXEi =
It may be calculated by XEi−XEi + 1. In this case, since the calculation result is negative, the subsequent determination is made negative. The same applies to the calculation of the difference ΔΔXEi = ΔXEi−1−XEi. Further, the difference ΔXSi and the difference ΔXEi and the difference ΔΔXSi and the difference ΔΔXEi are individually determined on the basis of the predetermined value M or Q. However, these may be sequentially determined by taking their absolute values. Further, in the embodiment, the insulator image is sampled by using the video sampling timing detection sensor 11. However, when such a timing detection sensor is not used, the camera 13 is determined to be not an insulator by the insulator determination processing. 2 to start the program of FIG. 2 in response to the shutter operation, or to periodically operate the shutter 13 of the camera 13 as the image acquisition and perform periodic interruption processing in response to this. You only need to start program 2.

In the above embodiment, the camera 13
In this invention, the image of the insulator is sampled by operating the shutter every time. However, in the present invention, the judgment of the insulator can be performed in a very short time. 13 is always set to an imaging state, so that an insulator image can be taken at high speed in real time on a traveling inspection vehicle. As described above, when an image is collected at a high speed in the always-imaging state, the binarization processing program 21, the noise removal processing program 22, and the structure removal processing program 23 do not use the program processing, respectively. A noise removal circuit and a structure removal circuit may be provided as circuits on a hard wafer to perform high-speed processing. Thereby, each camera 13
Image data corresponding to one field or one frame extracted from the image data. As a result, the speed can be increased to the extent that the entire process including the insulator determination process is performed within 1/60 second corresponding to an image of one field.

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention, the insulator image judging means is provided, and each contour coordinate on the horizontal scanning line is set based on the vertex of the target image when the target image is displayed on the screen. With respect to the position, the current outline coordinate position is within a certain range with respect to the previous outline coordinate position, and the area of the target image is within a predetermined area range. If the image of the insulator can be extracted, the height of the lowermost end of the insulator can be obtained from the relationship between the position of the lowermost image (coordinate position of the vertex on the screen) where the camera is installed and the camera installation position. . As a result, the process of height measurement from the captured image can be performed in real time and easily at substantially the imaging speed of the camera, and the height measurement process can be realized by a relatively simple process on the inspection vehicle.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment to which a height measuring device for a trolley wire support insulator of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the height measuring process.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an insulator determination process in the height measurement process.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the actual height reference table.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of image processing, and (a) of FIG.
Is an explanatory diagram of an insulator image, (b) is an explanatory diagram of edge coordinates in the determination process, and (c) to (f) are explanatory diagrams of images of various structures that are likely to be recognized as insulators.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a relationship between a trolley wire support insulator provided at an air section and an inspection vehicle.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 2, trolley wire, 3, support pillars 3, 4, 5 ... insulator, 11
… Video sampling timing detection sensor, 12… Laser light source,
13 camera, 14 A / D conversion circuit (A / D), 15
... Image data processing device, 151 ... MPU, 152 ... Memory, 153 ... CRT display, 154 ... Image memory, 155 ... Interface, 156 ... Bus, 157 ...
External storage device, 21 binarization processing program, 22 noise removal processing program, 23 structure removal processing program, 24 insulator image determination program, 25 actual insulator height calculation program, 26 actual height reference table .

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Hiroki Sato 2-2-2, Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Inside Japan Railway Company (72) Inventor Muneo Sato 3-163-3, Higashi 3-chome, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Hitachi Electronics Within Engineering Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Motonori Kanaya 3-16-3 Higashi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Hitachi Electronics Engineering Co., Ltd. (72) Takao Yoshizawa Inventor 3-3-1-3 Higashi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Hitachi Electronics Engineering Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 2F065 AA24 BB12 CC34 FF04 GG04 JJ03 JJ08 JJ26 MM14 MM24 PP22 QQ31

Claims (4)

[Claims] An apparatus for measuring the height of a trolley wire supporting insulator for supporting a trolley wire, comprising: a luminous flux having a predetermined width in a direction substantially perpendicular to a traveling direction of the inspection vehicle from an inspection vehicle upward; A laser light source that is generated, an imaging device that is attached to the inspection vehicle with the top and bottom inverted, receives reflected light of the light beam from the trolley wire support insulator, and captures an image of the reflected light beam, and the imaging device obtained from the imaging device Image of the lower peripheral part of the trolley wire support insulator is binarized to obtain a target image that is inverted upside down, and when this target image is displayed on the screen, each contour coordinate position on the horizontal scanning line based on the vertex of the image An insulator image determining means for determining that the current contour coordinate position falls within a certain range with respect to the preceding contour coordinate position and that the area of the target image is within a predetermined area range; By means Height calculating means for calculating the height of the trolley wire support insulator based on the coordinate position of the vertex on the image in the vertical direction with respect to the determined insulator image, wherein the height of the trolley wire support insulator is provided. Measuring device. 2. The insulator image judging means judges that the current outline coordinate position falls within a certain range with respect to the previous outline coordinate position, and determines the leading edge coordinate position on a horizontal scanning line in the target image. And a first difference between a leading edge coordinate position on the next horizontal scanning line, a trailing edge coordinate position on the certain horizontal scanning line in the target image, and a trailing edge coordinate position on the next horizontal scanning line in the target image. 2. The trolley wire support insulator height measuring device according to claim 1, wherein the height difference is calculated by calculating the second difference and comparing the first difference and the second difference with a first predetermined value. 3. The insulator image judging means judges that the current outline coordinate position falls within a certain range with respect to the previous outline coordinate position, and further determines the first outline position on the horizontal scan line before the predetermined outline coordinate position. The difference between the difference and the first difference on the next horizontal scan line is calculated as a third difference, and the difference between the second difference on the previous horizontal scan line and the first difference on the next horizontal scan line is further calculated. The difference from the second difference is calculated as the fourth difference, and the third difference is calculated.
3. The trolley wire support insulator height measuring device according to claim 2, wherein the height difference of the trolley wire supporting insulator is measured by comparing the difference between the first and second values with the second predetermined value. 4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said insulator image determining means is arranged such that a length from said leading edge to said trailing edge of said last horizontal scanning line in said target image is first within a predetermined range. 4. The trolley wire supporting insulator height measuring device according to claim 3, wherein the insulator is determined by determining that the value of the insulator is equal to the value of the insulator.