JPH11223514A - Wood selection device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To select wood quantitatively, accurately and in high speed by the length and bend of the wood. SOLUTION: The device has illumination means 3A and 3B for irradiating slit lights 4A and 4B in full length of wood 2 from the direction crossing the axis line of the wood 2 carried in, imaging means 5A are 5B for imaging the wood that the slit lights 4A and 4B are cast by the illumination means 3A and 3B, an image processing and operating means for obtaining the light cut image of the wood 2 from the image imaged by the imaging means 5A and 5B, obtaining three-dimensional shape of the whole wood based on the light cut image and measuring the length and bend of the wood 2, based on the three-dimensional shape and a selection means for selecting the wood 2 by the length and bend obtained with the image processing and operating means.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a timber sorting device,
In particular, the present invention relates to a wood sorting apparatus capable of quantitatively sorting wood with high precision and high speed in accordance with the length and bending of the wood.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, lumber (rough wood) in the lumber market
Is determined by the type of wood (tree type), the outer diameter, length and bend of the wood. For this purpose, the timber brought into the timber market from various places is sorted according to these measurement data. In this sorting operation, for example, in order to sort wood by its outer diameter, the outer diameter of the wood conveyed one by one by a conveyor device such as a belt conveyor is measured manually by a ruler, and the measurement data is obtained by a producer. The ink is written in the wood mouth with the code, or the label with these is attached to the wood, and the wood diameter is keyed into the wood sorting device, and the wood sorting device is based on the keyed wood diameter. The transfer position is switched. In this way, the wood was sorted by its outer diameter.

In recent years, a method for automating the operation of measuring the outer diameter of wood has been proposed. In this method, light is irradiated to the wood from one side surface of the wood to be conveyed, the irradiated light is received on the opposite side, and the shadow portion in the light receiving unit is set as the wood diameter.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 6-55142 discloses another method for measuring the outer diameter of wood, in which the cross section of the conveyed wood is image-processed and the minimum diameter of the cross section of the wood excluding the bark is determined. A method for determining the diameter is disclosed.

On the other hand, regarding the length of wood, a light source and an optical sensor are provided on the side surface of the wood transport conveyor so as to face each other. Alternatively, a method of calculating based on the light shielding time is conceivable.

[0006]

However, as described above, the measurement of the outer diameter and length of wood is automated, but the bending of wood, which is an important indicator of the commercial value of wood, is At present, automation is not performed, and it is performed manually. At present, the quality of wood is judged based on how the annual rings are made. Therefore, especially in the timber market where a large amount of timber is handled, not only the sorting operation due to the bending of the timber is complicated, but also because the quantitative evaluation cannot be performed, efficient trade cannot be performed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a wood sorting apparatus capable of quantitatively sorting wood at a high precision and a high speed according to the length and bend of the wood.

[0008]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
Illuminating means for irradiating slit light over the entire length of the wood from a direction intersecting with the axis of the incoming wood, and imaging means for imaging the wood illuminated with the slit light by the lighting means And obtaining a light-section image of the wood from the image of the wood captured by the imaging unit, obtaining a three-dimensional shape of the entire wood based on the light-section image, and based on the three-dimensional shape. Image processing and calculating means for measuring the length and bending of the wood, and sorting means for selecting the wood according to the length and bending of the wood obtained by the image processing calculating means. It has features.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the illumination means includes:
It is provided at a fixed position, and is characterized by being capable of reciprocating rotation so that the slit light is irradiated over the entire length of the wood.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the illuminating means and the imaging means are integrated, and the illuminating means, the imaging means and the wood are relatively movable along the axial direction of the wood. It has a characteristic in a certain thing.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, an embodiment of the wood sorting apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a timber sorting device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing a timber sorting device of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a light-cut image of wood, and FIG. ,
It is a schematic plan view which shows the other wood sorting apparatus of this invention.

In FIG. 1 to FIG. 4, reference numeral 1 denotes a carry-in device comprising a chain conveyor, a belt conveyor, a walking beam, or the like, and sequentially feeds the wood 2 to a measurement position, that is, a slit light irradiation position described later. .

Reference numerals 3A and 3B denote illumination means for irradiating the slit light 4A or 4B such as a laser beam to the wood 2 from a direction intersecting the axis of the wood 2. 3A is wood 2
Is an illuminating means for irradiating the slit light 4A toward the wood 2 from above, and 3B is an illuminating means for irradiating the slit light 4B to the wood 2 from the side of the wood 2. The illuminating means 3A, 3B are provided at fixed positions,
B can be rotated reciprocally so that B is irradiated over the entire length of the wood 2. Lighting means is basically one piece of wood
However, if two pieces are provided for the upper part and the side part of the wood 2 as in this example, a three-dimensional shape of the whole wood 2 described later can be obtained more realistically.

Reference numerals 5A and 5B denote imaging means for imaging the entire wood 2 irradiated with the slit lights 4A and 4B at regular intervals, ie, at regular rotation angles of the slit lights 4A and 4B or at regular time intervals. . 5A is an imaging unit for imaging the upper part of the wood 2, and 5B is an imaging unit for imaging the side of the wood 2. In this example, one imaging unit is provided for each of the upper part and the side part of the wood 2. However, if a plurality of imaging means are provided, even if the length of the wood 2 is long, the imaging means will have excellent resolution. Images can be obtained.

Reference numeral 6 denotes an image processing operation for obtaining a light section image of the wood 2, obtaining a three-dimensional shape of the entire wood 2 from the light section image, and measuring the length and bending of the wood 2 from the three-dimensional shape. Means. According to the image processing calculation means 6, the three-dimensional shape of the entire wood 2 is obtained as follows. That is,
Image processing such as differentiation processing or binarization processing is performed on the image of the wood 2 obtained by the imaging units 5A and 5B to extract a portion irradiated with slit light. FIG. 3 shows the light-section image thus extracted. Next, the light-section image shown in FIG. 3 is subjected to graphic conversion from the relative positional relationship between the slit lights 4A and 4B and the imaging means 5A and 5B when the image is captured. Thereby, a partial three-dimensional shape of the wood 2 is obtained.
When the above operation is performed over the entire length of the wood 2, a three-dimensional shape of the entire wood 2 is obtained. The bending of the wood 2 from the three-dimensional shape of the whole wood 2 thus obtained can be measured, for example, by comparing a reference straight line with the outline of the wood 2 in the three-dimensional shape. If the length and bend of the wood 2 obtained in this way are marked on the mouth of the wood 2 or the like, collation after wood sorting can be easily performed.

In addition, it is difficult to image the wood 2 irradiated with the slit lights 4A and 4B at regular intervals by the imaging means 5A and 5B while performing the differentiation processing, the binarization processing and the coordinate conversion processing. In some cases, images at regular intervals are temporarily stored in a memory, and after obtaining an entire image of the wood 2, image processing and coordinate conversion processing are performed to obtain a three-dimensional shape of the entire wood 2. You may do it.

If there is a possibility that the slit lights 4A and 4B may interfere with each other, for example, the light source of the illumination means 3A is red, the light source of the illumination means 3B is green, and the imaging means 5
It is preferable that a filter that transmits only red is attached to A, and a filter that transmits only green is attached to the imaging unit 5B.

In the above-described example, the illuminating means 3A and 3B are provided at fixed positions, and the slit lights 4A and 4B are reciprocally rotated over the entire length of the wood 2. As shown in FIG. And the imaging means 5 may be integrated, and these may be moved in the axial direction of the wood 2 by the linear slide mechanism 8, or the wood 2 may be moved by fixing the lighting means 3 and the imaging means 5. In this case, the slit light 4 is
The wood 2 is irradiated from a direction perpendicular to the axis of the wood 2.

Furthermore, it is also possible to simultaneously irradiate a plurality of pieces of wood 2 with the slit light 4 and simultaneously measure the length and bending of the plurality of pieces of wood 2. Reference numeral 7 denotes a sorting unit for sorting the wood 2 according to the length and the bending of the wood 2 obtained by the image processing operation unit 6. The sorting means 7 transports the wood 2 after the measurement in a line in the axial direction by a conveyor or the like, and when the wood 2 is transported to a predetermined position, the wood 2 on the conveyor is driven by a driving force of a hydraulic cylinder or an electric motor. Is paid out to a shoot or the like.

According to the wood sorting apparatus of the present invention having the above-described structure, wood is sorted according to length and bend as follows. When the timber 2 is randomly carried into the carrying-in device 1, the timber 2 is sequentially fed laterally with one of the cut ends aligned. Thus, when the wood 2 is sent to the measurement position, the loading device 1 stops. Then
Irradiation means 3A and 3B irradiate slit light 4A and 4B to the upper and side portions of wood 2. Imaging means 5A, 5B
Images the wood 2 irradiated with the slit lights 4A and 4B at regular intervals.

The image processing / calculating means 6 processes the images sent at regular intervals to obtain light cut images of the wood 2 at regular intervals, and based on the light cut images, the partial three-dimensional shape of the wood 2 This operation is performed over the entire length of the wood 2 to obtain a three-dimensional shape of the entire wood 2. After obtaining the three-dimensional shape of the entire piece of wood 2 in this way, the image processing operation means 6 measures the length and the bending of the piece of wood 2 based on the three-dimensional shape.

The wood 2 whose length and bend have been measured in this way is sent to the sorting means 7, where it is sorted by length and bend.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention, the illuminating means for irradiating the slit light over the entire length of the wood from the direction intersecting the axis of the wood being carried in, and the lighting Imaging means for imaging the wood irradiated with the slit light by the means, from the image of the wood imaged by the imaging means, to obtain a light cut image of the wood, based on the light cut image, An image processing means for obtaining a three-dimensional shape of the whole wood, and measuring a length and a bending of the wood based on the three-dimensional shape; and a length of the wood obtained by the image processing means. And the sorting means for sorting the wood by bending, so that the sorting of the length and bending of the wood is more quantitatively more accurate and faster than in the case of conventional manual sorting. Useful effects such as obtaining is brought about.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a wood sorting apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing a wood sorting device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a light section image of wood.

FIG. 4 is a schematic plan view showing another wood sorting apparatus of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: conveying device 2: wood 3, 3A, 3B: lighting means 4, 4A, 4B: slit light 5, 5A, 5B: imaging means 6: image processing operation means 7: sorting means 8: linear slide mechanism

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Shotaro Harano 1-1-2 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Inside Nihon Kokan Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Hideki Ugo 1-1-2, Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Inside Nippon Kokan Co., Ltd. (72) Katsuya Hayashi, 1-2-1, Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Japan Inside Nippon Kokan Co., Ltd. (72) Watashi Hashimoto, 1-2-1, Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan Honko Co., Ltd.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An illumination means for irradiating slit light over the entire length of the wood from a direction intersecting with an axis of the introduced wood, and an image of the wood irradiated with the slit light by the illumination means. Imaging means for performing, from the image of the wood imaged by the imaging means, to obtain a light cut image of the wood, based on the light cut image, to obtain a three-dimensional shape of the entire wood, and Image processing and arithmetic means for measuring the length and bend of the wood based on the three-dimensional shape, and sorting means for sorting the wood by length and bend of the wood obtained by the image processing and arithmetic means And a wood sorting device. 2. The lighting device according to claim 1, wherein the illuminating unit is provided at a fixed position, and is reciprocally rotatable so that the slit light is irradiated over the entire length of the wood. Wood sorting equipment. 3. The illumination unit and the imaging unit are integrated, and the illumination unit, the imaging unit, and the wood are relatively movable along an axial direction of the wood. The wood sorting apparatus according to claim 1.