Fundamental Safety Acquisition using Image Processing Techniques for Accident-free Power Press Works

화상처리 기법을 응응한 동력 프레스 작업의 근원적 안전확보

In spite of a tendency automatizing manaufacturing processes, since power presses are highly repetitive at high speeds, they have still been using to a large extent in many industries. More often than not, press workers have to make decisions whether work materials are located well or not, they should rearrange them or not, and their bodies would be safe or not. If the decision would be wrong, of course, they cause severe damages to human workers so that many workers haven't been willing to work with them. However, with the help of computer technologies, it would be possible to aid the press workers' decisions, and to allow or prohibit them from inserting their hands between slide rams and dies. Thus, this research was aimed to evaluate and analyze possibilities of applying Image Processing Techniques for prevention of press accidents. Through a series of procedures including Capturing work sites and material, Image Enhancement, Contouring, and Edge Finding, work characteristics were obtained and analyzed. The results showed that there were somewhat differences in image characteristics between accident-induced work scenes and accident-free ones. Consequently, if the image analyses are well carried out in real time, they would give a successful help to human press workers.