CAMERA BASED SHEET MEASUREMENT SYSTEM FOR LASER CNC MACHINES

Abstract

Laser CNC machines are widely utilized for cutting metal sheets of varying thickness and materials. The sheets to be cut can be of varying dimensions and be placed at any desired area of the cutting table. The operator needs to assign the starting point of the laser manually along with the dimensions of the metal sheet in order to start the cutting process. The process of assigning the starting point and dimension of sheet are time consuming and can take few minutes before every cutting process and it sums up to hours by the end of daily cutting jobs, an automated process of sheet measurement can save considerable amount of time and speed up the process. In this thesis, a camera based system for automatic sheet measurement which includes measurement of starting point assignment, orientation, length and breadth has been developed. The algorithms have been implemented keeping in mind the importance of speed since the processing has to be done in real time and needs to be as fast as possible. The implemented algorithms can find all required parameters in about two seconds. The techniques utilized for its implementation have been discussed. The robustness of the system has been compared with other traditional methods of sheet measurement and orientation detection. The implemented system was tested on a real laser CNC machine over a period of six months and the test results have been discussed. Also, a camera based intrusion detection system for laser CNC machine has been developed in order to make it safe for human during operation. Patent application made for the implemented system.