MEASUREMENTS OF RANGEFINDER DATA FROM PALLETS &
POLYETHYLENE
1. Devices and Equipment. Methodology of experiment.
1.1 Devices, Equipment, Materials and Software.
- IR Rangefinder SICK\LMS-111.
- Camera MatrixVision\mvBlueFox.
- Cables (for power supply +12V & Ethernet to Rangefinder).
- 2 europallets.
- Polyethylene.
- PC with SOPAS ET, MATLAB R2010, Windows, uRDEsm.exe utility.
1.2 Methodology of experiment.
1.2.1 Switch on and adjust the Rangefinder and Camera, set the pallets
and polyethylene in the positions of interest (see Appendix 3.1).
1.2.2 Take the photos from the Camera and Rawdata from the Rangefinder
in the mode: 4 channels rawdata, 0.25° resolution, 16-bit remission, 25 Hz.
1.2.3 Preprocess the Rangefinder Rawdata by the “uRDEsm.exe” utility (to
extract the information on the Distance & Remission for 2 channels).
1.2.4 Process the Distance & Remission data by MATLAB with purpose to
obtain the information about the Rangefinder environment (contour of
pallets, room & other objects with remission values).
Subject: Measurements of Rangefinder Data from Pallets & Polyethylene
Project: LASER-CAMERA SYSTEMS
Author: Afanasyev Ilya
Copyright © Trento University, 2010. Duplication and disclosure to third party is forbidden without approval from Trento University.
Date: 2016-02-08
E-mail: ilya.afanasyev@gmail.com
1
Measurements of Rangefinder Data from Pallets & Polyethylene
2. Summary
2.1. The polyethylene is transparent for IR rangefinder. The remission
values of front side of a pallet vary in the range of 545-585 digits for a
central block (with polyethylene) and 550-570 digits for the right block (with
polyethylene), see Figure 1. So polyethylene can be considered as a
transparent for IR rangefinder and can’t be easily separated from a pallet
block without polyethylene.
Figure 1. Photo of the front-side of a pallet (left) and Rangefinder remission
data for selected part of the pallet (right).
Another example, for case with polyethylene shown in Figure 2, structures
1, 2, and 3 have remission values in ranges 525-585, 535-555, and 500565. So, it can be difficult to recognize the polyethylene.
Figure 2. Photo of the front-side of a pallet (left) and Rangefinder remission
data for selected part of the pallet (right).
Subject: Measurements of Rangefinder Data from Pallets & Polyethylene
Project: LASER-CAMERA SYSTEMS
Author: Afanasyev Ilya
Copyright © Trento University, 2010. Duplication and disclosure to third party is forbidden without approval from Trento University.
Date: 2016-02-08
E-mail: ilya.afanasyev@gmail.com
2
Measurements of Rangefinder Data from Pallets & Polyethylene
2.2. There are differences between the value of gaps in the face side of a
pallet (see Figures 3 and 4). These differences can be in two times.
Figure 3. Photos of a front side of pallets covered by polyethylene fully (left)
and partly (right).
Figure 4. Rangefinder data for a front side of pallets covered by
polyethylene fully (left) and partly (right).
Subject: Measurements of Rangefinder Data from Pallets & Polyethylene
Project: LASER-CAMERA SYSTEMS
Author: Afanasyev Ilya
Copyright © Trento University, 2010. Duplication and disclosure to third party is forbidden without approval from Trento University.
Date: 2016-02-08
E-mail: ilya.afanasyev@gmail.com
3
Measurements of Rangefinder Data from Pallets & Polyethylene
2.3. The variations of remission values for a central blocks of a pallet
covered by polyethylene can be 20-40 digits at the same distance (3.5m),
see Figure 5. The rangefinder data corresponds to the pallet positions of
Figure 3 (left and right).
Figure 5. Rangefinder remission data for pallets with covered central block
by polyethylene (both left and right) for different data scans (see Figure 3).
2.4. The variations of remission values for a left blocks of a pallet with
polyethylene (right) and without (right) can be the same 20-40 digits as for
covered central blocks by polyethylene in conclusion #3, see Figure 6.
Figure 6. Rangefinder remission data for a left blocks of a pallet with
polyethylene (left) and without (right) according to the pallet positions of
Figure 3 (left and right).
Subject: Measurements of Rangefinder Data from Pallets & Polyethylene
Project: LASER-CAMERA SYSTEMS
Author: Afanasyev Ilya
Copyright © Trento University, 2010. Duplication and disclosure to third party is forbidden without approval from Trento University.
Date: 2016-02-08
E-mail: ilya.afanasyev@gmail.com
4
Measurements of Rangefinder Data from Pallets & Polyethylene
2.5. Multilayer polyethylene can be semitransparent for IR rangefinder. The
remission values from the front sides of pallet can vary in the range of 450600 digits for the pallet without polyethylene and 420-570 digits with, see
Figure 7. Difference in remission values for the same structures can be in
30 digits.
Figure 7. Photo of pallets without/with a multilayer polyethylene (top) and
Rangefinder remission data for such configuration (bottom).
Subject: Measurements of Rangefinder Data from Pallets & Polyethylene
Project: LASER-CAMERA SYSTEMS
Author: Afanasyev Ilya
Copyright © Trento University, 2010. Duplication and disclosure to third party is forbidden without approval from Trento University.
Date: 2016-02-08
E-mail: ilya.afanasyev@gmail.com
5
Measurements of Rangefinder Data from Pallets & Polyethylene
3. Conclusions.
3.1. The polyethylene is transparent for IR rangefinder.
3.2. The polyethylene decreases the depth of recognized gaps between
front-side pallet blocks (see blocks 1,2 and 3 in the Figure 2), and
multilayer polyethylene does it significantly (Figure 7).
3.3. The values of remission for pallets with/without polyethylene can be
approximately the same with small difference in 20-30 digits, so it is difficult
to use the remission data for reliable detection of polyethylene.
3.4. The values of remission for pallets with polyethylene can be different
for different rangefinder scans, and the difference can achieve 20-30 digits.
Therefore the using the remission data can’t be easy for reliable detection
of polyethylene.
4. Acknowledgments.
Acknowledgments to the supervisor of the Project: Assoc. Prof. Mariolino
De Cecco and the group of Mechatronics (Mechanical and Structural
Engineering Dep., University of Trento): Luca Baglivo (for the problem
definition), Nicolo Biasi (for rawdata capturing), and Mattia Tavernini (for
MATLAB processing).
Subject: Measurements of Rangefinder Data from Pallets & Polyethylene
Project: LASER-CAMERA SYSTEMS
Author: Afanasyev Ilya
Copyright © Trento University, 2010. Duplication and disclosure to third party is forbidden without approval from Trento University.
Date: 2016-02-08
E-mail: ilya.afanasyev@gmail.com
6
Measurements of Rangefinder Data from Pallets & Polyethylene
4. Appendixes.
4.1 Photos and Rangefinder remission data on experiments with Pallets & Polyethylene.
Subject: Measurements of Rangefinder Data from Pallets & Polyethylene
Project: LASER-CAMERA SYSTEMS
Author: Afanasyev Ilya
Date: 2016-02-08
E-mail: ilya.afanasyev@gmail.com
Copyright © Trento University, 2010. Duplication and disclosure to third party is forbidden without approval from Trento University.
7
Measurements of Rangefinder Data from Pallets & Polyethylene
Subject: Measurements of Rangefinder Data from Pallets & Polyethylene
Project: LASER-CAMERA SYSTEMS
Author: Afanasyev Ilya
Date: 2016-02-08
E-mail: ilya.afanasyev@gmail.com
Copyright © Trento University, 2010. Duplication and disclosure to third party is forbidden without approval from Trento University.
8
Measurements of Rangefinder Data from Pallets & Polyethylene
Subject: Measurements of Rangefinder Data from Pallets & Polyethylene
Project: LASER-CAMERA SYSTEMS
Author: Afanasyev Ilya
Date: 2016-02-08
E-mail: ilya.afanasyev@gmail.com
Copyright © Trento University, 2010. Duplication and disclosure to third party is forbidden without approval from Trento University.
9
Measurements of Rangefinder Data from Pallets & Polyethylene
4.2 MATLAB code for Rangefinder data processing
clear all
close all
clc
Dist1
Dist2
RSSI1
RSSI2
=
=
=
=
load('DIST1.txt');
load('DIST2.txt');
load('RSSI1.txt');
load('RSSI2.txt');
theta = deg2rad( (225:-0.25:-45) );
st = 475;
ed = 615;
for i=1%1:1:1%size(Dist1,1)
maxrsssi = max (RSSI1(i,st:ed));
minrsssi = min (RSSI1(i,st:ed));
range = maxrsssi-minrsssi+1
a = jet(range);
[X1,Y1] =
[X2,Y2] =
[X1r,Y1r]
[X2r,Y2r]
pol2cart( theta ,
pol2cart( theta ,
= pol2cart( theta
= pol2cart( theta
Dist1(i,:) );
Dist2(i,:) );
, RSSI1(i,:) );
, RSSI2(i,:) );
figure(2)
title('Cartesian Coordinate DIST1')
clf, axis equal, grid on , hold on
for j=st:1:ed
text( X1(j) , Y1(j) , num2str(RSSI1(i,j)))
plot( X1(j) , Y1(j) , 'x' , 'color' , a( RSSI1(i,j)+1-minrsssi,:) ,
'markersize' , 4 , 'linewidth' , 4 )
end
plot( 0 , 0 , 'xb' ,'markersize' , 10 , 'linewidth' , 2 )
xlabel('x [mm]')
ylabel('y [mm]')
figure(4)
title('Cartesian Coordinate DIST1 + DIST2')
clf, axis equal, grid on , hold on
for j=1:1:length( X1 )
plot( X1(j) , Y1(j) , '.b' )
plot( X2(j) , Y2(j) , 'xr' )
if norm( [X2(j) , Y2(j)] )~0
line( [X1(j),X2(j)],[Y1(j),Y2(j)],'color','g');
end
plot( 0 , 0 , 'xb' ,'markersize' , 10 , 'linewidth' , 2 )
end
xlabel('x [mm]')
ylabel('y [mm]')
%
end
pause( 0.1 )
Subject: Measurements of Rangefinder Data from Pallets & Polyethylene
Project: LASER-CAMERA SYSTEMS
Author: Afanasyev Ilya
Copyright © Trento University, 2010. Duplication and disclosure to third party is forbidden without approval from Trento University.
Date: 2016-02-08
E-mail: ilya.afanasyev@gmail.com
10