From l: Nadia Nilsen, business unit manager, ABB Measurement Products and Farai Pasipamire, Richards Bay branch secretary.
ABB official launched the VM3D volumetric laser scanner in Richards Bay on the 4th of July. Three sessions were conducted at Umhambi Lodge and ABB had the privilege of presenting at the SAIMC technology evening on a topic aligned with the launch. Nadia Nilsen, business unit manager for ABB Measurement Products, gave a presentation on ‘An automated inventory management system’.
Nadia explained the principles of operation of laser technology and then covered operation of the VM3D scanner. She explained how the single beam motorised unit rotates to capture thousands of points to create a profile of the stockpile. The VM3D uses a high-speed laser pulse to measure distance. The laser beam is emitted towards the surface and some of it reflects back to the instrument where it is detected by a sensitive optical receiver. The time it takes for the light to travel to the surface and back to the instrument is directly proportional to the distance between the instrument and the surface. Using a time-of-flight calculation the VM3D accurately measures the distance to the target surface.
The VM3D transmits the raw point cloud over the 3G cellphone network to the ABB data centre where the data is analysed to produce a picture of the stockpile and an estimate of the volume and mass it contains. This analysis eliminates artefacts like machinery and visible building structures from the volume estimate, even if they move from scan to scan.
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