Claims:
1. A system for real-time in-line tracking of wood chips brightness, said system comprising:
at least one moving wood chips feed conveyor belt (4) adapted to feed wooden chips;
at least one chamber (10) isolated from ambient lighting positioned at top of the wood chips feed conveyor (4) adapted to create at least one ambient light exclusion zone (6);
at least one Internet Protocol (IP) camera (1) positioned above the moving wood chips feed conveyor belt (4) inside the chamber (10) adapted to capture images of the feed wooden chips on the moving wood chips feed conveyor belt (4);
at least one artificial lighting (2) positioned inside the chamber (10) adapted to provide consistent image quality to the captured images of the feed wooden chips;
at least one device (7) comprising a software code adapted to process the images captured by the IP camera (1) to predict the ISO brightness of the feed wood chips;
wherein the IP camera (1) is connected to the device (7) through at least one communication means (11) adapted to upload the captured images in the software code and the software code deploys a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model on the input images to generates the ISO brightness based on the RGB values of the input image frames; and
wherein the predicted ISO brightness of the feed wooden chips images from the device (7) is communicated to an IT cum OT system module (8) connected to a control station (9) adapted to provide real-time feed-forward control and optimization of Bleaching Chemicals dosage.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one ambient light exclusion zone (6) comprises a plurality of rubber curtains (3) adapted so as to prevent the ambient lighting from reaching the at least one chamber (10).

3. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the feed wooden chip is at least one selected from the group consisting of Eucalyptus, Subabul, Casuarina, Bamboo, Birch, Aspen, Pine, Spruce, Fir, Larch, Hemlock, Mango, or any hybrids or clones thereof.

4. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the communication means (11) is at least one selected from the group consisting of wired or wireless network.

5. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the IT cum OT system module comprising at least one component selected from the group consisting of a DCS (DISTRIBUTED CONTROL SYSTEM), an MES (Manufacturing Execution System), a QCS (Quality Control System), a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), an Edge Computing Device, a Cloud Computing Device, or any combination thereof (8)

6. A method for real-time in-line tracking of wood chips brightness, said method comprising steps of:
capturing (100) images of feed wooden chips on a moving wood chips feed conveyor belt (4);
uploading and processing (110) of the captured feed wooden chips images in a software code contained in a device (7);
predicting (120) ISO brightness of the feed wooden chips images;
communicating (130) the predicted ISO brightness of the feed wooden chips images to the IT cum OT system module (8) for calculating bleaching chemical dosage set point based on the predicted ISO brightness of the feed wooden chips images;
wherein communicating the data through the IT cum OT system module (8) to a control station (9) for providing real-time feed-forward control and optimization (140) of Bleaching Chemicals dosage as per the set point.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the IT cum OT system module comprising at least one component selected from the group consisting of a DCS (DISTRIBUTED CONTROL SYSTEM), an MES (Manufacturing Execution System), a QCS (Quality Control System), a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), an Edge Computing Device, a Cloud Computing Device, or any combination thereof (8).
, Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the field of paper manufacturing and more particularly, to a system for real-time in-line tracking of wood chips brightness in a manufacturing facility.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Mechanical pulping is the process in which wood is separated or defibrated mechanically into pulp for the paper industry. The mechanical pulping processes use wood in the form of logs or chips that are mechanically processes, by grinding stones (from logs) or in refiners (from chips), to separate the fibers.

Methods for estimating wood chip brightness are important in classifying wood chips in chip piles, stabilizing chip brightness in the pulping process, and reducing bleaching chemical consumption in pulp mills. They also allow us to understand and control factors including outdoor storage in the summer that affect chip and pulp brightness.

In Mechanical Pulping, Wood chips ISO brightness is a critical parameter of input raw material. ISO Brightness has a direct impact on Bleaching Chemicals consumption and is a known surrogate to determine Pulp Yield. The method to determine ISO Brightness in Lab has a lead time of 24 hours, with a small, non-representative sample size of 300 grams, compared to daily consumption of 500 Metric tonnes of wood chips, in the current case. This does not serve the process for real-time bleaching chemicals dosage control based on wood chips ISO brightness.

US2020191765 discloses a method of board lumber grading is performed in an industrial environment on a machine learning framework configured as an interface to a machine learning-based deep convolutional network that is trained end-to-end, pixels-to-pixels on semantic segmentation. The method uses deep learning techniques that are applied to semantic segmentation to delineate board lumber characteristics, including their sizes and boundaries.

JP4192594B2 provides a new technique by which high whiteness bleached pulp can be produced from hardly bleachable wood containing extracts in a large amount, and to provide a technique by which the amount of a bleaching agent to be used can be reduced. It discloses a process for producing the bleached mechanical pulp, comprising a fibrillating process by the primary refining treatment, a bleaching process, and a beating process by the secondary refining treatment is characterized by fibrillating the hardly bleachable wood chips and then washing the pulp fibers before the pulp fibers are bleached. Thereby, the amount of a bleaching chemical agent to be used can be reduced, and the bleached mechanical pulp having a Hunter brightness of 45 to 65% after the secondary refining treatment can be obtained.

CN110503051 discloses a precious wood recognition system based on image recognition technology, which includes image acquisition equipment, an input layer, a neural network model INCEPTION-V3 intermediate layer, a data dimensionality reduction LDA model and a K-NN classifier to construct a neural network model. The structure includes an input layer, an INCEPTION-V3 intermediate layer, and an output layer; the input layer is connected to the INCEPTION-V3 intermediate layer and the output layer in turn, and the input end of the data dimensionality reduction LDA model is connected to the output end of the output layer; The input layer is used for image preprocessing of zooming 300×300 pixels to 224×224 pixels.

The above described prior art system suffers from many disadvantages, which the instant invention effectively eliminates. For this reason, there is a dire need to provide an improved and efficient system for real-time in-line tracking of wood chips brightness in a manufacturing facility that provides real-time bleaching chemicals dosage control based on wood chips ISO brightness.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The following disclosure presents a simplified summary of the invention in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not an extensive overview of the present invention. It is not intended to identify the key/critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purpose is to present some concept of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to a more detailed description of the invention presented later.

An object of the present invention is to overcome the problems of prior art.

An object of the present invention is to provide an improved system for real-time in-line tracking of wood chips brightness in a manufacturing facility that provides real-time bleaching chemicals dosage control based on wood chips ISO brightness.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a system for real-time in-line tracking of wood chips brightness which reduces the lead time for measurement of the brightness.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a system for real-time in-line tracking of wood chips brightness which provides real-time feed-forward control and optimization of bleaching chemicals dosage.

One aspect of the present invention is to provide a system for real-time in-line tracking of wood chips brightness where the predicted Wood Chips ISO Brightness is then used for real-time feed-forward control and optimization of Bleaching Chemicals dosage to achieve the target ISO Brightness of output Mechanical Pulp in a manufacturing facility.

In one implementation of the first aspect as described above, the present invention discloses a system for real-time in-line tracking of wood chips brightness where the system comprises at least one moving wood chips feed conveyor belt adapted to feed wooden chips, at least one chamber isolated from ambient lighting positioned at top of the wood chips feed conveyor adapted to create at least one ambient light exclusion zone, at least one Internet Protocol (IP) camera positioned above the moving wood chips feed conveyor belt inside the chamber adapted to capture images of the feed wooden chips on the moving wood chips feed conveyor belt, at least one artificial lighting positioned inside the chamber adapted to provide consistent image quality to the captured images of the feed wooden chips, at least one device comprising a software code adapted to process the images captured by the IP camera to predict the ISO brightness of the feed wood chips, wherein the IP camera is connected to the device through at least one communication means adapted to upload the captured images in the software code and the software code deploys a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model on the input images to generates the ISO brightness based on the RGB values of the input image frames and the predicted ISO brightness of the feed wooden chips images from the device (7) is communicated to at least one IT cum OT system module comprising at least one component selected from the group consisting of a DCS (DISTRIBUTED CONTROL SYSTEM), an MES (Manufacturing Execution System), a QCS (Quality Control System), a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), an Edge Computing Device, a Cloud Computing Device, or any combination thereof; connected to a control station adapted to provide real-time feed-forward control and optimization of Bleaching Chemicals dosage.

In one implementation of the first aspect as described above, the at least one ambient light exclusion zone comprises a plurality of rubber curtains adapted to prevent the ambient lighting from reaching the at least one chamber.

In another implementation of the first aspect as described above the feed wooden chips are selected from a group consisting of Eucalyptus, Subabul, Casuarina, Bamboo, Birch, Aspen, Pine, Spruce, Fir, Larch, Hemlock, Mango, or any hybrids or clones thereof and the communication means is an Ethernet cable and the like.

Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a method for real-time in-line tracking of wood chips brightness comprises steps of capturing images of feed wooden chips on a moving wood chips feed conveyor belt, uploading and processing of the captured feed wooden chips images in a software code contained in a device, predicting ISO brightness of the feed wooden chips images, communicating the predicted ISO brightness of the feed wooden chips images to at least one IT cum OT system module comprising at least one component selected from the group consisting of a DCS (DISTRIBUTED CONTROL SYSTEM), an MES (Manufacturing Execution System), a QCS (Quality Control System), a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), an Edge Computing Device, a Cloud Computing Device, or any combination thereof; for calculating bleaching chemical dosage setpoint based on the predicted ISO brightness of the feed wooden chips images and wherein communicating the data through at least one component of the IT cum OT system module to a control station for providing real-time feed-forward control and optimization of Bleaching Chemicals dosage as per the set point.

Other aspects, advantages, and salient features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings, discloses exemplary embodiments of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS
The above and other aspects, features and advantages of the embodiments of the present disclosure will be more apparent in the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 illustrates the flowchart of the steps involved in the system for a real-time in-line tracking system of wood chips brightness, according to one of the embodiments of the present invention.

Figure 2 illustrates the block diagram of a real-time in-line tracking system of wood chips brightness, according to one of the embodiments of the present invention.

Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and may not have been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figure may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. Throughout the drawings, it should be noted that like reference numbers are used to depict the same or similar elements, features, and structures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of various embodiments of the present disclosure as defined by the claims and their equivalents. It includes various specific details to assist in that understanding, but these are to be regarded as merely exemplary. Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications of the various embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. In addition, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions may be omitted for clarity and conciseness.

The terms and words used in the following description and claims are not limited to the bibliographical meanings, but, are merely used by the inventor to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the following description of various embodiments of the present disclosure is provided for illustration purpose only and not for the purpose of limiting the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

All terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which various embodiments belong. Further, the meaning of terms or words used in the specification and the claims should not be limited to the literal or commonly employed sense, but should be construed in accordance with the spirit of the disclosure to most properly describe the present disclosure.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular various embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of various embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms "a," "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms "comprises" and/or "comprising" used herein specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, members, components, and/or groups thereof, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, members, components, and/or groups thereof. Also, Expressions such as "at least one of," when preceding a list of elements, modify the entire list of elements and do not modify the individual elements of the list. In the context of the present invention, the IT cum OT system module comprises at least one component selected from the group consisting of a DCS (DISTRIBUTED CONTROL SYSTEM), an MES (Manufacturing Execution System), a QCS (Quality Control System), a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), an Edge Computing Device, a Cloud Computing Device, or any combination thereof.

The present invention discloses a system and method for real-time in-line tracking of wood chips brightness where the images of the feed wooden chips moving on a feed conveyor belt (4) is captured using a camera and then the captured images of the moving wooden chips are further fed to a software code which deploys a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model on the captured images to generates the ISO brightness based on the RGB values of the input image frames and the predicted ISO brightness of the feed wooden chips images is communicated to the IT cum OT system module comprising at least one component selected from the group consisting of a DCS (DISTRIBUTED CONTROL SYSTEM), an MES (Manufacturing Execution System), a QCS (Quality Control System), a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), an Edge Computing Device, a Cloud Computing Device, or any combination thereof (8) connected to a control station (9) adapted to provide real-time feed-forward control and optimization of Bleaching Chemicals dosage. The predicted Wood Chips ISO Brightness in the present invention is then used for real-time feed-forward control and optimization of Bleaching Chemicals dosage to achieve the target ISO Brightness of output Mechanical Pulp.

The CNN model disclosed in the present invention was trained by using input images of individual wood chips of different shapes and sizes and known ISO brightness determined from Lab test.

Figure 2 of the present invention illustrates the block diagram of a real-time in-line tracking system of wood chips brightness. This figure shows a moving wood chips feed conveyor belt (4) adapted to feed wooden chips, a chamber (10) isolated from ambient lighting on the top of the wood chips feed conveyor (4) for creating an ambient light exclusion zone (6), an IP camera (1) positioned above the moving wood chips feed conveyor belt (4) inside the chamber (10) for capturing images of the feed wooden chips on the moving wood chips feed conveyor belt (4), artificial lighting (2) positioned inside the chamber (10), a device (7) comprising a software code adapted to process the images captured by the IP camera (1) to predict the ISO brightness of the feed wood chips, a communication means (11) for connecting the camera (1) and the device (7) which is connected to the IT cum OT system module comprising at least one component selected from the group consisting of a DCS (DISTRIBUTED CONTROL SYSTEM), an MES (Manufacturing Execution System), a QCS (Quality Control System), a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), an Edge Computing Device, a Cloud Computing Device, or any combination thereof (8) which is further connected to a control station (9).

In an embodiment of the present invention, a system for real-time in-line tracking of wood chips brightness where the system comprises at least one moving wood chips feed conveyor belt (4) adapted to feed wooden chips, at least one chamber (10) isolated from ambient lighting positioned at top of the wood chips feed conveyor (4) adapted to create at least one ambient light exclusion zone (6), at least one Internet Protocol (IP) camera (1) positioned above the moving wood chips feed conveyor belt (4) inside the chamber (10) adapted to capture images of the feed wooden chips on the moving wood chips feed conveyor belt (4), at least one artificial lighting (2) positioned inside the chamber (10) adapted to provide consistent image quality to the captured images of the feed wooden chips, at least one device (7) comprising a software code adapted to process the images captured by the IP camera (1) to predict the ISO brightness of the feed wood chips, wherein the IP camera (1) is connected to the device (7) through a communication means (11) adapted to upload the captured images in the software code and the software code deploys a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model on the input images to generates the ISO brightness based on the RGB values of the input image frames and the predicted ISO brightness of the feed wooden chips images from the device (7) is communicated to the IT cum OT system module comprising at least one component selected from the group consisting of a DCS (DISTRIBUTED CONTROL SYSTEM), an MES (Manufacturing Execution System), a QCS (Quality Control System), a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), an Edge Computing Device, a Cloud Computing Device, or any combination thereof (8) connected to a control station (9) adapted to provide real-time feed-forward control and optimization of Bleaching Chemicals dosage.

In another embodiment, the at least one ambient light exclusion zone (6) comprises a plurality of rubber curtains (3) adapted to prevent the ambient lighting from reaching the at least one chamber (10).

In a further embodiment, the feed wooden chips are selected from a group consisting of Eucalyptus, Subabul, Casuarina, Bamboo, Birch, Aspen, Pine, Spruce, Fir, Larch, Hemlock, Mango, or any hybrids or clones thereof and the communication means (11) is selected from the group consisting of wired or wireless network.

Yet in another embodiment of the present invention, a method for real-time in-line tracking of wood chips brightness comprises steps of capturing (110) images of feed wooden chips on a moving wood chips feed conveyor belt (4), uploading and processing (120) of the captured feed wooden chips images in a software code contained in a device (7), predicting ISO brightness of the feed wooden chips images, communicating (130) the predicted ISO brightness of the feed wooden chips images to the IT cum OT system module comprising at least one component selected from the group consisting of a DCS (DISTRIBUTED CONTROL SYSTEM), an MES (Manufacturing Execution System), a QCS (Quality Control System), a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), an Edge Computing Device, a Cloud Computing Device, or any combination thereof (8) for calculating bleaching chemical dosage setpoint based on the predicted ISO brightness of the feed wooden chips images and wherein communicating the data through the IT cum OT system module comprising at least one component selected from the group consisting of a DCS (DISTRIBUTED CONTROL SYSTEM), an MES (Manufacturing Execution System), a QCS (Quality Control System), a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), an Edge Computing Device, a Cloud Computing Device, or any combination thereof (8) to a control station (9) for providing real-time feed-forward control and optimization (140) of Bleaching Chemicals dosage as per the set point.

Some of the non-limiting advantages of the present invention are as follows:
1) Reduced lead time for measurement (2 seconds in current system vs. 24 hours in the conventional systems)
2) Increased sample size to represent the overall variations in the input wood chips brightness (100% surface samples (random in nature) testing vs. 300 grams in Lab)
3) Real-time feed-forward control and optimization of Bleaching Chemicals Dosage.
4) Reduced Standard Deviation of Final Pulp ISO brightness, for the same Standard Deviation of input wood chips ISO brightness.
5) Reduced Specific Consumption (Kg/MT of Bleached Pulp) of Bleaching Chemicals.

The method and system disclosed in the invention can be used for prediction of wood chips ISO brightness in Mechanical Pulping, Kraft Pulping, and any other pulping processes where wood chips are used as input raw material for manufacturing wood pulp for any paper/paperboard applications. Further, application of same system on any moving conveyor to predict the brightness of the material being transported on the conveyor and using this predicted value as a surrogate to determine various characteristics of such a material, relating to quality.

Those skilled in the art will recognize other use cases, improvements, and modifications to the embodiments of the present disclosure. All such improvements and other use-cases are considered within the scope of the concepts disclosed herein.