Development of A Wireless Sensor Node for Storage Bin Volume Measurement

One of the crucial processes in the food manufacturing industry is monitoring and measuring the raw products stored in large storage structures, typically called Silos. These procedures are pivotal in dictating the industry's production, quality control, and efficiency. In this study, a wireless sensor node was developed to automatically measure the volume of the product stored in the created mock-up storage bin and a 3D surface reconstruction for visualization. The sensor node utilized a single-broad computer for its computing and wireless functionality. The sensing device comprised LiDAR sensor and a servo motor for data acquisition. The system used an open-source ROS framework to simplify the software along with its data processing pipline and hardware interface integration. The single- board and the end user devices were connected to the same network and used Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) for remote functionality. Results from three different testing setups revealed an average error of 1.309% between the actual and predicted volume of the flour materials within the mock-up storage bin. This deviation from the actual content volume implies that the developed system offered an alternative method for efficient volume measuring of the storage bin through remote data collection and 3D visualization.