Current Trends in Bulk Solids Quantity Monitoring Inside the Large Capacity Industrial Tanks and Reservoirs

The surface of a bulk substance is usually very irregular and can include very high peaks and deep tunnels, what make single point level measurements rather tricky. The main task of the study was to investigate the possibility of bulk solids quantity or volume monitoring by surface 3D scanning with a help of the only one single point high frequency radar combined with a hexapod movable platform. Desirable position and orientation of a hexapod platform can be provided by solving the inversed kinematics task, when we can estimate the length of each kinematic rod knowing the displacement of the movable platform in relation to the stationary base . The possible algorithm for the grain volume calculation was suggested, similar to what is used together with acoustic or laser systems for surface 3D scanning, which provides the possibility of accurate bulk solids quantity monitoring.