LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Andrew Braund (southoz) <southoz@chariot.net.au>
  To  : 'LinuxSA' <linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au>
  Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 12:10:27 +1030

Reminder: Linux based system for the Automation of Wool Sorting and Classing - SAMG meeting TONIGHT

LinuxSA members are invited to tonight's meetings of the South Australian
Microprocessor Group which will be a presentation by Mr Mike O'Conner on a
Linux based system for the automation of wool sorting and classing. The
meeting will be held at 8pm, Whicker Road, Port Adelaide. A more detailed
description of the meeting is below.

Regards
Andrew Braund
Chairman - South Australian Microprocessor Group
http://www.adelaide.net.au/~samg/



SUBJECT: The Automation of Wool Sorting and Classing
PRESENTER: Mike O'Connor
TIME: 8:00 PM SHARP!
DATE: Friday March 12, 1999
PLACE: Whicker Road, Port Adelaide

The March SAMG meeting will be a visit to a wool store down at Port
Adelaide to see a computerised wool sorting and classification
system. Mr Mike O’Connor will describe the technical details
of a system that automates wool bale sorting and classing
machines used in the Wool Industry. The system is
currently under development but is already at an advanced
stage with live system tests presently being carried out. It is
based on a design where the majority of the software
developed to drive the equipment is written at a high level
rather than along the lines of an embedded processor or
PLD style implementation. The software runs under the
Linux operating system and most of the development tools
and applications software are free source. For example the
video pattern recognition software which has been developed by a
University Lecturer in New Zealand. The wool bales are
handled at high speed and this requires considerable force,
supplied by hydraulic rams. The control of the rams is
performed by a self contained module developed by a local
(Barossa Valley) designer specifically for the project.
Virtually all of the hydraulic systems are analog and use
rotary encoders to act as the feed back. The hydraulic valve
controllers receive RS485 commands directly. These
commands are translated into analog signals going to the
valve. The project uses almost totally off the self
components. The digital I/O is from a company called
Opto22 in the USA, advantages of which include:
· All 16 channels are capable of giving of 20Khz counters
· The bricks can do simple event control
· A variety of buses are supported eg. RS485 & Ethernet
Industrial PC's with video capture and video switching hardware
are used to calculate features on the wool bales.
All those attending are requested to meet at the gate near the
asphalt quadrangle on Whicker Road at 8pm sharp. The
group will then be taken inside the woolshed and the gate
locked behind us. Please don’t be late! (If you do find
yourself alone in the sunset at 8:05 p.m. call me on 0414
370015 and I will try to get you in!). I look forward to seeing
you there.

Andrew Braund

-- 
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