3D Spreader Position Information by the CCD Cameras and the Laser Distance Measuring Unit for ATC

This paper introduces a novel approach that can provide the three dimensional information on the movement of a spreader by using two CCD cameras and a laser distance sensor, which enables an ALS (Automatic Landing System) to be used for yard cranes at a harbor. So far a kind of 2D Laser scanner sensor or laser distance measuring units are used as corner detectors for the geometrical matching between the spreader and a container, which provides only 2D information which is not enough for an accurate and fast ALS system required presently. In addition to this deficiency in performance, the price for the system is too high to be adopted widely for the ALS. Therefore, to overcome these defects, a novel method to acquire the three dimensional information for the movement of a spreader including skew and sway angles is proposed using two CCD cameras and a laser distance sensor. To show the efficiency of proposed algorithm, real experiments are performed to show the accuracy improvement in distance measurement by fusing the sensory information of CCD camera and laser distance sensor.