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ARS Home » Plains Area » Lubbock, Texas » Cropping Systems Research Laboratory » Cotton Production and Processing Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #399161
Research Project: Enhancing the Profitability and Sustainability of Upland Cotton, Cottonseed, and Agricultural Byproducts through Improvements in Pre-Ginning, Ginning, and Post-Ginning Processes

Location: Cotton Production and Processing Research

Title: Auto-calibration design for a gin-stand based machine-vision inspection system for plastic contamination

Author
item Pelletier, Mathew
item Wanjura, John
item Holt, Gregory

Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/4/2022
Publication Date: 1/20/2022
Citation: Pelletier, M.G., Wanjura, J.D., Holt, G.A. 2022. Auto-calibration design for a gin-stand based machine-vision inspection system for plastic contamination. National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The removal of plastic contamination from cotton lint is an issue of top priority to the U.S. cotton industry. One of the main sources of plastic contamination showing up in marketable cotton bales is the plastic used to wrap cotton modules produced by John Deere round module harvesters. Despite diligent efforts by cotton ginning personnel to remove all plastic encountered during module unwrapping, plastic still finds a way into the cotton gin’s processing system. To help mitigate plastic contamination at the gin, a machine-vision detection and removal system was developed that utilizes low-cost color cameras to see plastic coming down the gin-stand feeder apron, which upon detection, blows plastic out of the cotton stream to prevent contamination. As the system is comprised of 30-50 computers, it takes a great deal of effort to calibrate and tune the system for optimal performance. Further, as the system is developed around low-cost ARM computers running Linux, there is also a technology barrier for the typical cotton gin workers, to be able to effectively operate this equipment. This research seeks to eliminate this step, turning the system into more of a plug-n-play appliance, with the addition of an auto-calibration system that will dynamically track the cotton colors, while avoiding plastic images that would impair the performance if plastic images were inadvertently utilized in the auto-calibration process. This paper presents the design for the auto-calibration algorithm which is anticipated to greatly reduce the overhead in setup and ongoing use of the system. The addition of an auto-calibration function will reduce the need for skilled personnel to operate the system. It is anticipated that the addition of an auto-calibration feature will streamline the adoption of the plastic removal system by the cotton ginning industry.