Technical specification of the Owl Eye system
The Owl Eye system is a hardware independent system and determines the volume of bulk solids with an accuracy of +- 1% for a good point cloud without measurement shadows
For point clouds with measurement shadows, smart algorithms interpolate the contour and can provide a reliable result even then. The small modern LiDAR sensors have a range of up to 150m and the most widely used sensor has a field of view of about 80° x 70°. The IP 67 classification allows reliable indoor and outdoor use. The smart choice of materials for the sensor housing means that hardly any dust settles on the cover, allowing the sensor to be used in harsh environments.
The Owl Eye system is a hardware independent system and can be used with different sensors from different manufacturers. Sachtleben Technology tests and benches the LiDAR market and is thus always at the cutting edge of technology. Accuracy, temperature resistance, measurement sensitivity with different materials and other various quality characteristics are tested.
With the Owl Eye System, Sachtleben Technology has developed a system for permanently, precisely and digitally recording bulk material inventories as volumes. The 3D sensors are installed at the appropriate locations in the warehouse, for example on building walls, building roofs or masts. A network (Ethernet into the company network or 4G/5G) and power (230V AC or 24V DC) connection is required.
Installation can be carried out by Sachtleben Technology’s own in-house electricians or by external partners. The final assembly and project set-up will ultimately be carried out by Sachtleben Technology. When selecting the sensor positions, the aim is to cover as large an area of the stockpile as possible with a small number of sensors, so that the bulk material piles are reliably detected for all stockpile sizes. The detection of bulk material stockpiles without a boundary wall is also fundamentally possible. In this case, it is important to ensure that the stockpile is scanned from different sides.
With the help of a modern and intuitive web application, the point clouds captured by the sensors can be processed and evaluated. The raw data from the individual 3D LiDAR sensors are georeferenced into a combined point cloud. The individual flat storage areas are then extracted from the overall point cloud and evaluated separately. The Owl Eye system is equipped with a powerful backend for the analysis of large 3D data and a database for the reliable and secure storage of the measurement data. Results are reported as inventory in cubic meters or tonnage and visualized in the dashboard like a stock price. To determine tonnage from volume, the bulk density must be known or determined in advance.
Depending on the installation method, the web interface is either only accessible from the internal company network or can be accessed via the Internet if the system is hosted in the Sachtleben Technology Cloud. If required, the data is also made available to third-party systems (e.g. ERP systems) via common APIs. Measurements can be performed both time-automated and on direct request. The desired time intervals are defined in the so-called project manager.
Measurements can be performed as often or as infrequently as desired. For example, every five minutes or once a day. The project manager also includes other functions, such as adding sensors, creating so-called Areas of Interest (storage location, flat storage, bulk stockpiles) or general settings, parameters and information about the project and the marked flat storage. For each stockpile there is a designation, bulk density, the stored material designation and the ground file. The system can be easily expanded continuously, for example, by installing new, additional sensors in the network and then adding them as sensors using the project manager. Each sensor added in the project manager contains name, IP address, host name or broadcast code, sensor type and the transformation matrix describing the georeferencing. This matrix is calculated manually when the sensor is installed.
To draw in the individual flat storage areas, the overall point cloud is loaded and the storage areas are drawn in by the user like a polygon and the parameters of the storage area are set. Once the storage area is saved, it is displayed in three dimensions in the project manager. Each storage area has a filter story associated with it. Static objects such as columns or conveyor systems can also be drawn in the filter story. These areas are then excluded from the volume calculation.
