Vehicle Weight Control

Annotation

 

Automated vehicle weighting and registration complex is intended for weight control of freight transport, both entering and outgoing.

 
The registration of vehicle license plates by machine vision app and the automated recording of weight control data, allowing to keep a record of the weights of the goods by contractors delivering basic bulk or filling materials (sand, stone, water, etc.), as well as the removal of garbage/sewage or other bulk cargo from the enterprise premises.
 
In addition, the complex collects and processes statistical data on the work of the weighting point and the preparation of the transport documents for goods or wastes removed from the premises. This feature greatly simplifies the operation of an enterprise security checkpoint (gate) and allows to do this job by a smaller number of staff.

 

CONTENTS
 
Requirements for the functionality of the weight control site
Algorithm of the weight control system
List of the software and hardware of weight control system
Specification of the equipment of the weighting site
 
 

Requirements for the functionality of the weight control site

The customer has made the following requirements for the functionality of the automated weight control set in the enterprise:
 

  • The software and hardware complex should comply with serially produced model of digital weight machines for freight vehicles and have the capacity for possible use with a different weighting equipment over the planned life cycle;
  • The components of the complex shall be stable on the open air including darkness, negative temperatures (-40 C /+ 50 C), high humidity, dustiness);
  • The system must recognize the license plate of the lorry, which is in the rear and the front of the vehicle with reliability of at least (99%) for clean plates;
  • The system is obliged to run a video recording of the weighting process for the purposes of validating the data in disputed situations;
  • The system should be easy understandable by the drivers of the vehicles for actions required from them as entering the weighting machine according to commands from security crew and their permit for further movement;
  • The system interface when installing at security checkpoint (gate) must be intuitively understood by the security personnel as well. Filling in information on a computer about a vehicle should not be difficult and uncontroversial for the staff;
  • The system should allow repeated weighting and registration of such data during the location of each vehicle within the enterprise premises;
  • At the last weighting, after identification by automated reading of the vehicle plate, the system has to send a command to print the necessary accompanying documents (exit pass, etc) for the driver to permit the exit from the premises;
  • In order to conduct the accounting the flow of goods by the CRM of the enterprise, the data must be in file format for easy loading into MS Excel;
  • Remote monitoring and technical support should be provided (over the local network or the Internet) for the complex;
  • The system should have the capacity to scale to work simultaneously over several weight points within the enterprise, as well as the possibility of easy replication to other enterprises of British American Tobacco Russia.

 
 

Algorithm of the weight control system

  • Using the web interface, the personnel of checkpoint (gate) enter data into the system about driver and vehicle to get entry pass. If the vehicle and/or driver previously came to the enterprise, the information is stored in the system archive and is used to speed-up the registration process;

 
Web interface of the complex

 

  • The driver enters the site, gets on the weighting machine. The vehicle starts from weighting procedure with video recording of the weighting process (plate recognition, start/end of weighting). The steam from cameras on the weighting platform is recorded in the system’s archive;

Procedure for weighting and recognizing of vehicle plates

  • Once the vehicle plates are successfully recognized by the technical vision, the system writes the weight information into database;
  • A traffic light of the complex gives a green signal to allow the driver to move or reports a plate recognition error (blinking red). The plate recognition error is usually requires clearing the plates from road dirt or snow;

Light of automatic weighting machine

  • The vehicle is moving according to its route (for example, to the waste depot, etc.), and may be subject to intermediate weighting if necessary;
  • In the last weighting point, after the vehicle plate is read, the system automatically or manually sends the command to print the necessary accompanying documents (exit pass, etc) for the exit of the vehicle from the premises;
  • The driver shows exit pass to the gate security officer and the vehicle leaves the premises.

Last vehicle weighting and printing of exit pass

 

The collected data about the vehicle and the characteristics of the goods get to analyzing by the software complex and become available for subsequent accounting and planning.
 
 

List of the software and hardware of weight control system

 
List of the software and hardware
 

Illustration of the weight control process in the enterprise

 

The main parts of the weight control complex:

1. An enterprise security checkpoint (gate);
2. The area of automated weight control;
3. Central server;
4. Site (point) of document printing (exit pass, etc).
 
The security checkpoint (gate) of the enterprise has a desktop computer (laptop) or Windows tablet to enter info about vehicle, driver and route within the premises.
 
The area of automatic weight control is designed to weight the vehicle at all stages of a route.
 
Weight control point consists of the following:

  • Digital weight machine for vehicles;
  • Video camera with an external infrared spotlight to recognize the front plate of the vehicle;
  • Video camera with an external infrared spotlight to recognize the rear plate of the vehicle;
  • Traffic light (red/green) to signal the driver of vehicle.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Server with programmable logical controller, electronic relays, etc. of the complex.
 
Network printer which automatically or manually receiving the command to print the required accompanying documents (exit pass, etc) after all stages of the vehicle’s route within the premises.
 
 

Specification of the equipment of the weighting site

The main components of the hardware and software complex are as follows:
 

  • Weather cameras with infrared illumination B2720RZK;
  • Traffic light two-color T 8.1;
  • PLC and IR-light power supply;
  • Desktop / Notebook / Windows – tablet of a post of a check point (the Operator’s computer: OS Windows 7/8/10, CPU Intel Atom 2Ghz, the Volume of operative memory:
    1Gb);
  • Programmable logical controller (Siemens SIMATIC S7-1200 + RS-232) to collect weight data;
  • Recognition software for vehicle plates;
  • Altami data processing software;
  • Web-interface app for roles of administrator, security officer, warehouse employee;
  • Central server of the complex (System server). (Operating system: Windows Server 2008 or later; Processor:
    Intel Xeon, 2.6 GHz Quad core or later; the amount of RAM: 6+ GB, 1 Gb Ethernet card, free 500+ MB on disk space.);
  • The system data library on the central server (supported database types): MSSQL/Postgresql/MySQL/SQLite3, free disk space requirements for image database storage: 100GB.

 

For more information on this project and orders for developing machine vision systems in industry, please contact Altami.

 
 

Contact Altami specialists!

E-Mail: mail@alelso.com Call: +1 (424) 653-6876



     

     

     
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