This document has been conceived with the following objectives:
- To define the product perspective and state the problem the product solves.
- To serve as a connection point for marketing, developers and business.
- To be a pointing vector at the developing stage.
- To help the team to understand the reasons behind the product.
Coal is a necessary component for steel production - the primary business direction of EVRAZ. If coal fractions are large the coal must be ground.
The problem of
- no process of separation of coal fractions
- no algorithm which makes a decision if grinding is necessary
affects
- EVRAZ
causing the impact of
- inefficient usage of time, power, and equipment
- low quality of produced steel if grinding was necessary but wasn't performed
The product is a system for the coal fraction analysis on the conveyor.
The product is supposed to be a solution to the abovementioned problem:
- A fragment of the conveyor is recorded by a video-camera.
- The recorded data transfers over the network to the server.
- Transferred data is being processed by the AI-based algorithm (the main part of the product).
- The result of the previous step is being processed yet to produce important statistics (histograms, graphs, etc).
- The data obtained in the previous step is visualized in the Web interface.
- An operator decides if grinding is necessary.
The following block diagram describes the process
- Ability to detect separate coal pieces in the image.
- Ability to calculate the size of a piece.
- Ability to perform analysis and produce necessary statistics (histograms, graphs, etc).
- Ability of using Web interface as a real time monitoring service.
- Ability to decide if grinding is necessary.
- Cameras.
- Transferring infastructure (wires, commutators, switches, routers).
- Servers.
- Software Development.
Another solution to the problem would be to develop and integrate a subsystem into the existing one which would separate the larger coal fraction from the entire stream on the conveyor followed by grinding the larger coal pieces:
But this approach is accompanied by the following difficulties:
- Developing and integration of such a system may be extremely expensive.
- The entire production process would have to be suspended for a long time.
The most important content of the product is software which can be divided into 3 groups:
- Computer vision.
- Data analysis.
- User interface.
This part consists of AI-driven algorithms and techniques of image analysis, and intended to accomplish the following tasks:
- Locate separate coal pieces in a photo (a video frame).
- Isolate a coal piece from its surroundings (e.g. finding the pixel mask of a piece).
- Prepare data for further analysis.
This part is intended to analyze the data produced by the CV-part and to construct the figures of merit based on which the resulting decision is made.
This part is a point of interraction between the user and the product. And
- Show the results of the CV-part in the recorded video (e.g. by drawing contours of the detected coal pieces).
- Display statistics (histograms, time graphs).
- (if necessary) Provide tools to interract with the equipment.
Title | Role | Description of Use |
---|---|---|
EVRAZ production operators | User of Web interface | Monitoring the coal composition |
Key | Value |
---|---|
Number of users per task | Usually 1 |
Requirements | PC, Internet connection, Browser |
- Python3 (with all required modules and libraries installed)
- Web Browser
- Video analysis (~10 fps);
- Low latency between the conveyor and operator.
Documentation must consist of at least 3 documents:
- README.md
- SRS
- User's guide
This file describes the purpose of the repo and provides the perspective view of the product.
It should answer the following question:
- What is the product?
- What is the purpose of the product?
- How to use the product?
A document that describes the inteded purpose, requirements and nature of a project.
Detailed description of how to work in the Web interface
N/A yet
in russian: фракция угля
is a standardized size of a piece of coal (e.g. large, medium, small)
in russian: конвейер
is a common piece of mechanical handling equipment that moves materials from one location to another.
in russian: ЕВРАЗ
is a global steel and mining company and the leading producer of infrastructure steel products with low-cost production along the value chain.
in russian: помол
is the reduction of something to small particles or powder by crushing it.
in russian: оператор на производстве
is an individual who operates equipment to assist with the assembling, manufacturing, processing and packaging of items along a production line.