A Structure from Motion Approach for the Analysis of Adhesions in Rotating Vessels

While processing material in rotating vessels such as rotary kilns, adhesions on the inner vessel wall can occur. Large adhesions usually affect the process negatively and need to be prevented. An online detection and analysis of adhesions inside the vessel during operation could allow the process control to deploy counter-measures that prevent additional adhesions or reduce the adhesion's sizes. In this paper, we present a new method that enables an image-based online detection, tracking and characterization of adhesions inside a rotating vessel. Our algorithm makes use of the rotational movements of adhesions in a structure from motion approach which allows for the measurement of the positions and heights of adhesions with a single camera. The applicability of our method is shown by means of image sequences from a rotating vessel model as well as from an industrially used cement rotary kiln.