Grain Conveyor Belt Load
Measures how much of the belt is loaded and detects empty running, overload and off-center load
A camera above the conveyor belt measures, frame by frame, how much of the belt width is covered by grain (soybeans, corn, wheat, coffee), meal, ore, crushed stone or sand. The system shows the load in real time and over time, identifies the belt running empty (energy and wear with no production), overload with a risk of spillover, and off-center load that causes mistracking and spillage — and combines load and speed into a flow index to balance the feed.
How it works
- 1The user marks the belt section with 4 corners; the image is rectified (perspective removed) and split into transverse scan lines.
- 2Text-prompted segmentation (CLIPSeg) separates material from empty belt, without training; a color and texture model fitted on the frame itself refines the load edge.
- 3On each scan line, the fraction of the width covered is measured; the average is the load, and the load centroid indicates centering.
- 4Apparent speed is measured by phase correlation along the flow, discounting the movement of the adjacent structure (compensates for camera movement).
- 5Configurable bands (empty, low, optimal, overload) trigger alerts with photos: empty belt, overload/spillover and off-center load.
Benefits
- Eliminates hours of belts running empty — direct savings on energy and on belt and idler wear.
- Prevents overload and spillover, which cause product loss, cleanup and downtime.
- Detects off-center load before belt mistracking.
- Provides continuous visibility of the feed to balance hoppers, dryers and crushers.
Load is the fraction of the belt width covered by material (not volume/weight). Speed and flow are indices relative to the typical observed speed; for tons per hour, the index is calibrated against the belt scale or the belt's rated capacity. Requires a stable view of the belt section and visual contrast between material and belt; heavy dust, very low lighting or a moving camera reduce accuracy. Gains are market references.


