Capturing the three-dimensional (3D) shape of the burden surface of a blast furnace (BF) in real-time with high accuracy is crucial for improving gas flow distribution, optimizing coke operation, and stabilizing BF operation. However, it is difficult to perform 3D shape measurement of the burden surface in real-time during the ironmaking process because of the high-temperature, high-dust, and lightless enclosed environment inside the BF. To solve this problem, a real-time 3D measurement system is developed in this study by combining an industrial endoscope with a virtual multi-head camera array 3D reconstruction method. First, images of the original burden surface are captured using a purpose-built industrial endoscope. Second, a novel micro-pixel luminance polarization method is proposed and applied to compensate for the heavy noise in the backlit images due to high dust levels and poor light in the enclosed environment. Third, to extract depth information, a multifeature-based depth key frame classifier is designed to filter out images with high levels of clarity and displacement. Finally, a 3D shape burden surface reconstruction method based on a virtual multi-head camera array is proposed for capturing the real-time 3D shape of the burden surface in an operational BF. The results of an industrial experiment illustrate that the proposed method can measure the 3D shape of the entire burden surface and provide reliable burden surface shape information for BF control.
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