Fibertron II-an automatic wood fibre measurement and control system

Describes the development and implementation of a machine vision system which provides the first continuous, quantitative measurement of refined wood fibres in the panel products industry. The addition of a rule-based control system to assist the machine operators in maintaining fibres of a desired, consistent quality is investigated in simulation, and then implemented in the manufacturing facility. This work highlights the advantages of machine vision and self-learning rule-based control in situations where a human is performing a visual assessment of a product, and using his knowledge and expertise to manually control the manufacturing process.<>