See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/258727085

Development of a machine vision system to monitor a grinding mill prototype

Conference Paper · September 2009

CITATION READS
1 1,453

5 authors, including:

Timo Roine
Aalto University
40 PUBLICATIONS   176 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Thalamus abnormalities: towards biomarkers in early psychosis View project

Improved reliability of fiber orientation estimation and graph theoretical analysis of structural brain networks with diffusion MRI View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Timo Roine on 22 January 2014.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Development of a Machine Vision System to Monitor a
Grinding Mill Prototype

Timo Roinea, Janne Pietiläa, Jani Kaartinena, Peter Blanzb, Jörn Rohlederc, Pertti Rantalac

a
Helsinki University of Technology (TKK),
Department of Automation and Systems Technology,
P.O.Box 5500, FI-02015 TKK, Finland
(e-mail: timo.roine@tkk.fi, janne.pietila@tkk.fi, jani.kaartinen@tkk.fi)
b
Outotec Oyj,
Minerals Processing division,
P.O.Box 84, FI-02201 Espoo, Finland
(e-mail: peter.blanz@outotec.com)
c
Helsinki University of Technology (TKK),
Department of Materials Science and Engineering,
P.O.Box 6200, FI-02015 TKK, Finland
(e-mail: jorn.rohleder@tkk.fi, pertti.rantala@tkk.fi)

Abstract
A grinding mill model based on discrete element method (DEM) simulations is being developed at
Outotec Oyj (Finland) to be used in mill design optimization. The model can be used for many
purposes; one example is the selection of the lining and the size of the mill to meet the requirements of
the clients. To validate the accuracy of the DEM simulator, a laboratory-sized ball mill prototype was
constructed and iron balls were used as the mill charge. The prototype mill has its front side made of
transparent glass in order to be able to visually examine the behaviour of the ball batch while the mill is
rotating. The idea behind this type of arrangement is to create an exact model of the prototype mill for
the DEM simulator and then compare the results while running the simulator and the physical mill with
identical filling and rotation speed parameters.
Image analysis can be used to evaluate and compare the performance of the prototype mill and the
DEM simulator. Because of the need to process a lot of images, a machine vision system was
constructed. The system was used to analyze the desired properties from the images taken of the
physical prototype mill and from the images acquired from the virtual DEM simulator model of the
same mill.
By using the developed image analysis software, the ball batch can be successfully separated from the
background, despite the challenges caused by dust build-up, which influences the visibility of the balls.
Several measures, such as shoulder and toe angle and the form of the upper edge of the ball batch, are
calculated from both camera and DEM based images. Because the measurements are calculated
identically in both cases, they can be compared to study and to improve the accuracy of the simulator.
Keywords
grinding, mill, mineral processing, machine vision, image analysis, discrete element method

1. Introduction
In mineral processing industry, the valuable minerals in the ore need to be liberated from the unwanted
gangue by comminution before they are separated (by flotation, for example). Also, the particle size
needs to be manipulated to be suitable for the separation method used. The comminution begins with
crushing of the ore and continues usually with grinding, resulting in a particle size with relatively clean
particles of mineral and gangue. The grinding is typically performed in a rotating cylindrical mill,
which contains a charge of crushing bodies moving freely inside the mill and thus comminuting the ore
particles. Comminution is usually performed with water, but in certain applications also dry grinding is
used. Grinding can be performed by different mechanisms, which include impact (or compression),
chipping, and abrasion as presented in Figure 1. Impact grinding happens due to forces applied almost
normally to the particle surface, chipping is caused when the forces are oblique and abrasion when they
are parallel.
(a) (b) (c)

Figure 1. Different mechanisms of comminution: (a) impact or compression, (b)

chipping, (c) abrasion.
The grinding mills can be classified into tumbling mills and stirred mills according to the method by
which the motion is induced to the charge. Tumbling mills are typically used in coarse grinding,
resulting in a typical particle size between 40 and 300 μm while stirring mills are used in fine
(15-40 μm) and ultra-fine (<15 μm) grinding (Wills and Napier-Munn 2006). Grinding is a continuous
process as material is fed from storage with a controlled rate into one end of the mill and after a
suitable dwell time it overflows from the other end. The grinding product size can be controlled with
the type of grinding medium, the rotating speed, the nature of the ore feed, and the type of grinding
circuit used.
A tumbling mill is characterized by the use of loose crushing bodies, which are harder and heavier, and
quite large compared to the ore particles, but small in relation to the volume of the mill. Steel rods,
steel balls or, in autogenous mills, rock itself can be used as the grinding medium. A renewable liner,
which withstands the impacts and wear, affects the motion of the charge and is installed inside the mill
shell. The liner is usually made of iron or steel, and its inner surface is coated with rubber, for example.
Many differently shaped liners are used; smoother liners induce more abrasive comminution and liners
with distinctive lifters cause more impacts during comminution. The mill charge is lifted along the
rising side of the mill, due to the rotation and friction of the mill liner, until equilibrium is reached. The
crushing bodies cascade (roll down) and cataract (fly over the charge) down to the toe of the mill
charge as presented in Figure 2. The running speed of the mill is important since it affects the product
and also the amount of wear on the shell liners. The mill should be run with a speed at which the
cataracting bodies fall on the toe of the charge and not on the liner.
Figure 2. Shape of the mill charge in a rotating tumbling mill.
At relatively low speeds, the crushing bodies tend to cascade to the toe of the mill, which causes
abrasive comminution and thus finer grinding, increased slimes production and increased liner wear. At
higher speeds, the crushing medium tends to cataract to the toe, which leads to comminution by impact
and therefore coarser product and reduced liner wear. If the speed is increased to excess, the crushing
medium will cataract over the whole ball batch and hit the liner of the mill causing heavy liner wear
and less comminution. The critical speed of the mill is the speed at which the theoretical trajectory of
the medium is such that the medium would fall outside the mill.
Undergrinding the ore will result a product too coarse and with insufficient liberation from the gangue,
therefore reducing the recovery and enrichment ratio in the concentration stage. On the other hand,
overgrinding will needlessly reduce the particle size below the size required for efficient separation. As
grinding is usually the greatest single operating cost of a concentrator plant, large amounts of expensive
energy can be either saved or wasted.
Due to the requirements presented about the motion of the charge and the correct product particle size
in the previous paragraphs, it is very important to carefully select the mill size, suitable liner and
running speed of the mill. To meet these needs, a grinding mill model based on Discrete Element
Method (DEM) simulations is being developed at Outotec Oyj. To validate the developed model, a
laboratory-sized ball mill prototype was constructed. A more detailed description of the DEM simulator
and the prototype mill will be given in the next chapter. Machine vision can be used to process the
images generated with the simulator and the images acquired of the prototype mill to receive identical
and comparable measurements from both cases. The machine vision system is described in the next
chapter and the measurements calculated from the images are presented in Chapter 3.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Simulation model
The discrete element method (DEM) is a means to simulate the interactions between particles in a
given system, usually confined within a set of walls. Working algorithms have been around since the
1970's (Cundall and Strack 1979), but, due to the method’s high computational requirements, DEM has
been feasible on workstation computers for a relatively short time.
The main stages of the DEM algorithm are as follows:
1. At a given moment, find all particles overlapping other particles and/or walls (the small overlap
simulates particle deformation).
2. Based on the amount of overlap and the velocity difference at the contact point, calculate forces
for all contact points using a contact model such as the spring-dashpot model or the extended
Hertz model (Pöschel and Schwager 2005).
3. Sum the forces for every particle to derive the acceleration vector of each particle.
4. Integrate numerically to get a new location for each particle.
5. Go to 1.
In DEM simulation the algorithm is run once for every time step. The length of the time step depends
on the complexity of the contact model, the movement of the walls, and the shape of the particles. In
the DEM method, all tangential and compressive forces affecting each particle are summed. If two
particles collide, they are able to overlap each other. The energy generated by the impact is
proportional to the overlapping of the particles. In the simple spring model kΔx equals the springback
factor. The collisions between particles are not fully elastic. The elastic deformation must be simulated
with a damping coefficient, otherwise the impact generates too much kinetic energy (Martikainen
2008).
One of the most obvious applications of DEM in minerals processing is the simulation of grinding,
where DEM methods have been able to realistically model the movement of the grinding charge inside
the mill. For a couple of years, Outotec and Teknikum have been jointly developing a DEM model for
the simulation of industrial grinding mills. The guiding idea of the project is to create a DEM package
that is both easily approachable and computationally effective. Since the program will be mainly
applied to grinding processes, special tools must be included to make the setting up of different mill
designs and particle charges as straightforward as possible. An example of the visual presentation of
the simulated mill is shown in Figure 3. The program must also have features for quickly analyzing and
comparing the simulation results from multiple mill configurations.
Figure 3. Simulation model example with visualized wall abrasion.
2.2. Prototype mill
A pilot validation mill was built at the Faculty of Chemistry and Material Sciences in order to conduct
test runs with different ball charge loads, rubber linings, and lifters. The aim was to collect validation
data for the grinding mill model based on DEM simulations.
The diameter of the mill is one meter and depth 0.2 meters. The diameter of the mill was made large
enough so that the trajectories of the balls would be realistic. The diameter of the balls is 20 mm and
the weight of one ball is 31.5 g. The motor power of the validation mill is 9.2 kW. If the load charge is
50 % of the mill volume, the charge will be 320 kg with over 11 000 balls.
The construction of the validation mill was designed so that different kinds of rubber liner and lifter
models would be easy to change. Also, to make it possible to take either a video clip or still images of
the mill, the front wall was made of glass and the back wall of translucent POM-material
(Polyoxymethylene). In order to avoid a breakage of the front glass, it was lined by a 0.5 mm thick
PVC folio layer. The folio gets dirty after a few minutes of operation, but it can be changed to a clean
one quite easily. In the future, also the back wall will be lined with the PVC folio to keep it clean.
The rotation speed (rpm) and torque of the mill can be measured and analyzed with the MillSense
program, developed by Outotec Oyj.
A similar laboratory ball mill (only longer) has been used by Erdem and Ergün (2009) to investigate
the effect of ball size on grinding kinetics with comparative tests. Morrison et al. (2009) have studied
the energy efficiency of ball and tower mills by using DEM simulations and pilot scale tower and ball
mills. In their article the ball mill studied was clearly smaller than the one used in this study. Also other
studies have been performed to investigate the load behaviour and comminution patterns in pilot scale
ball mills, for example by Djordjevic et al. (2006) and Lameck et al. (2006). Validations of DEM
simulations by using a pilot scale ball mill have also been done earlier by e.g. Hlungwani et al. (2003),
but machine vision was not used to compare the results. More details of pilot mills used in
comminution modelling can be found in Powell and Morrison (2007)
 2.3. Machine Vision
A machine vision system was constructed to analyze images from the simulator and from the prototype
mill in identical ways (see Figure 4.). The system consists of a Basler A602f monochrome FireWire
camera, which is attached to a computer, and an image analysis software programmed with Matlab ® to
capture and analyze the images. Also, a standardized lighting setup was constructed to provide
consistent illumination. The camera is situated perpendicular to the transparent glass wall of the
prototype mill and the lighting is applied from behind the mill through its translucent rear wall. This
way the dark iron balls can be distinguished from the lighter background.

Figure 4. The prototype mill and the measurement setup of the machine vision system.
As mentioned, the PVC coating was needed in order to soften the impacts, and thus prevent cracking of
the glass wall. While the coating prevented the cracking efficiently, another problem arose as the
coating started to wear and get dirty quite quickly, an example is shown in Figure 5. The coating is
easily exchangeable, but the staining had to be taken into account in the image analysis. This made it
possible to separate the balls from the background even with stained coating. However, the contrast
between the balls and the lighter background is of course weakened by the staining, and it can be
compensated by algorithmic means only to a certain extent.

Figure 5. Image of the prototype mill with an unstained (left) and stained (right) front
glass wall.
The image analysis starts by acquiring a reference image of an empty and preferably unstained mill as
shown in Figure 6. This reference image will be used until the camera is moved or the mill liners are
changed. The mill location and the shape of the lifter profile will be detected from the image. The
location is detected by finding three points from the border between the dark mill liner and lighter outer
area of the mill. A circle can then be unambiguously fitted to these three points with simple
mathematical equations, thus yielding the center point and the radius of the mill. The image is cropped
according to the received values. The liner profile can then be extracted by thresholding the image with
a properly selected value between the light background and dark mill liner intensities. After this, the
area outside the mill is eliminated based on the distance from the mill center point. The detected liner
profile with the lifters is presented in Figure 6. It is also possible to take into account any permanent
non-rotating shades, which are due to uneven lighting or supporting structures of the mill (for example
the small shade shown in Figure 6 in the lower part of the left image).

Figure 6. First reference image and the detected mill location (left) and the liner profile
(right).
At least after the first run of the mill, the staining has to be taken into account in the image analysis.
This can be done by capturing another reference image of the stained mill. The mill needs to be
stopped, but it doesn’t need to be emptied for the second reference image. The second image is also
thresholded to separate the mill profile and the stationary ball batch from the background. The area
outside the mill is marked black. Then the area detected as the mill background is used to calculate the
average image intensity as a function of distance from the mill center point, as shown in Figure 7
below.

Figure 7. The calculation of the intensity profile.

Now the calibration of the image analysis has been done and the analysis of images from the moving
mill can be started. The first calibration needs to be redone only if the position of the camera or the
shape of the liner is changed. The intensity profile needs to be recalibrated after every test run. The
intensity calibration is however very simple and it takes only about one second to capture an image and
do the calibration.
The analysis sequence starts by cropping the image according to the mill location and by thresholding
the image to find the position of the lifters. The space between the lifters in the upper right corner of
the image is always empty from balls and can therefore be used to detect the position of the lifters in
comparison to the mill liner profile recognized from the reference image. The detection of the position
is done by comparing the position of the lifters to pre-rotated lifter profiles from the reference image.
Pre-rotation is used in order to avoid the use of time-consuming image rotating. After the position has
been found, the correctly rotated lifter profile in combination with the intensity profile can be used to
threshold the image again. Also, the non-rotating permanent shades are used, if they exist. The part of
the analysis described so far is called pre-processing as it has to be done before the actual
measurements can be calculated from the images. Purpose of the pre-processing is to produce a binary
image (image in the lower right corner shown in Figure 8) containing only the ball batch.
Figure 8. The pre-processing of images of the rotating mill: The first row illustrates the
rotation of the liner profile and the second row the final thresholding.
The DEM simulation model can also produce similar images. As the analysis is image based, the same
pre-processing sequence can be used to analyze also the simulated images. After the pre-processing, the
actual measurements need to be calculated.
In addition, it is possible to analyze the movement of the load by photographing the front of the mill.
Applying the lighting from the front of the mill causes the metal balls to reflect the light and thus –
with the right shutter time – the reflections stretch and draw Euclidean vectors in the image. From the
image it is possible to calculate the velocity of each ball in focus range, by measuring the length of the
line and then comparing it to a fixed scale.
3. Results
As the results of the image analysis, several measurements are received. They are degree of filling,
shoulder angle, toe angle, separation angle and the form of the upper edge of the ball batch. All of the
algorithms start their calculations from an image received from the pre-processing.
The degree of filling can only be calculated of an image of a stationary mill, because the flying and
moving balls mark the whole depth of the mill as filled even when there’s only one 20 mm ball in the
200 mm depth of the mill at the specific location. Other aspects of the calculation are really simple. The
area filled by the balls is compared to the whole area inside the mill, and an estimate describing the
degree of filling is received.
The shoulder and toe angles can be calculated with the same algorithm, so they are presented together.
The algorithm begins with the finding of the edges of the ball batch with the Prewitt method (Sonka et
al. 1999). Also the edges of the previously received correctly rotated liner profile are searched with the
same method. These edges are then compared to each other, and only the edges in the same place in
both images are preserved, while others are discarded. To eliminate small errors due to e.g. differences
in the rotation of the images, morphological dilation operation (Gonzales and Woods 1999) is first
applied to both edges to make them thicker. Next, the largest continuous edge is searched and the angle
in relation to the mill center point is calculated for all points of the edge. The zero angle is directly
downwards from the center. Positive angles are to the right and negative angles to the left from the zero
angle. The largest and smallest angles are the toe and shoulder angles correspondingly (Figure 9).
Recognition of the profile of the upper edge of the ball batch is started by selecting the largest segment
of the ball batch for analysis. In case there are thin lines connecting adjacent segments, morphological
closing operation (Gonzales and Woods 1999) is first used to detach them from each other. Then, the
edges of the largest segment of the ball batch are searched with the Prewitt method and again compared
to the edges of the rotated liner profile. This time only the edges of the ball batch segment not adjacent
to the liner are preserved while others are discarded. A polynomial (of e.g. fourth degree) is then fitted
with the least squares method (Martens and Næs 1989) to the edge points received this way (Figure 9).
Sometimes, for example when the lifters are very large, the largest segment of the ball batch continues
further away than the toe and shoulder angles. Then the points of the edge with an angle larger than the
toe angle or smaller than the shoulder angle can be discarded. The polynomial can then be forced to
end at the shoulder and toe angles by adding points near the edge of the mill at the corresponding
angles and by using weighted least squares method (Martens and Næs 1989).

Figure 9. The calculation of the shoulder and toe angles and the recognition of the
upper edge of the ball batch.
Also, the angle of detachment and the angle of impact, if the cataracting balls hit the liner instead of the
ball batch, can be detected. This can be done by inspecting the space between the liners and finding the
first space in both directions with no balls in it. This way a “sawed measurement” will be received for
both angles when processing multiple images of the rotating mill due to the position of the lifters.
Selecting the local minimums of the absolute values of both measurements will give the correct angles.
The machine vision system has already been used for initial comparisons of the prototype mill and the
simulation model. Example images analyzed from both cases are presented in Figure 10. Also a new
lining profile with inclined lifters has been installed. Example images of the new profile are presented
in Figure 11. The load charge is much bigger and the new profile is closer to the actual profiles in
industrial mills, and therefore the shape of the charge is more realistic than in Figure 10.
Initial comparisons have been done and, as can be seen from the images, there are still small
differences between the model and the prototype mill which lead to incorrect detection of the toe angle
in the simulator case in Figure 10. Also, a small difference can be noticed in the toe angles in Figure
11. However, this is exactly what was hoped for from the image analysis system presented in this
paper; it is able to point out the differences between the real mill and the virtual DEM model. Based on
these findings, the DEM model will be enhanced in the future.

Figure 10. An analyzed image of the prototype and the simulation model.

Figure 11. An analyzed image of the prototype and the simulation model with the new
inclined liners
The speeds of the balls measured from a vector image are presented in Figure 12. To validate the
results of the vector images, it is good to compare the speed of the lining with the speed of the outer
balls. The speed of the lining is measured with the MillSense equipment. The calculated speed of the
outer balls is 6-7% less than the speed of the lining. This difference is realistic, because the outer balls
slide in relation to the lining, even when under stress.

Figure 12. A vector image of the prototype mill with calculated ball speeds

4. Discussion and conclusions

A machine vision system was developed for image analysis of a prototype mill to compare it to a
grinding mill model based on discrete element method (DEM) simulations. The developed machine
vision system can measure the shoulder and toe angles, the profile of the upper edge of the ball batch
and the degree of filling from images received from both the prototype mill and the simulation model.
The measurements are calculated identically and can therefore be compared easily to each other.
However, the measures depended heavily on the angle of the mill, at least in these first case analyses
with the large lifters. This effect could be taken into account with the use of the mill angle, which had
already been calculated when the liner profile needed to be rotated to match the angle of the analyzed
image. This way, only images with the same rotation angle could be compared to each other.
Initial comparisons between the analyzed images of the prototype mill and the simulation model have
been done and small differences in especially the toe angle have been noticed. The work of changing
the simulation model to match the reality better has been started. New comparisons can be easily done
 with other validation runs, which have already been conducted with different degrees of filling and
rotation speeds. Also, more validation runs will be conducted later with different lifter profiles.
In the vector images the general movement of the load is clearly visible. The vector lines give a visual
impression of the different velocities in the mill. The slowly moving center, “the kidney”, is clearly
seen in the load. The effect of the kidney on grinding and energy consumption is not known and needs
further research. At the moment the length of the vector lines is measured by hand with a graphics
editing program. This task can later be automated.
As shown, the presented image analysis method makes it possible to do identical and thus comparable
analysis between real-world and virtual images on-line. This then enables rapid development of the
DEM simulator.

5. References
Cundall, P. A., Strack, O. D. L. (1979). A Discrete Numerical Model for
Granular Assemblies, Géotechnique 29, 47-65.
Djordjevic, N., Morrison, R., Loveday, B., Cleary, P. (2006). Modelling comminution patterns within a
pilot scale AG/SAG mill. Miner. Eng. 19, 1505-1516
Erdem, A. S., Ergün, S. L. (2009). The effect of ball size on breakage rate parameter in a pilot scale
ball mill. Miner. Eng. (In press)
Gonzalez R. C., Woods R. E. (2002). Digital Image Processing. Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Hlungwani, O., Rikhotso, J., Dong, H., Moys, M. H. (2003). Further validation of DEM modeling of
milling: effects of liner profile and mill speed. Miner. Eng. 16, 993-998.
Lameck, N. S., Kiangi, K. K., Moys, M. H. (2006). Effects of grinding media shapes on load behaviour
and mill power in a dry ball mill. Miner. Eng. 19, 1357-1361.
Martens, H., Næs, T. (1989). Multivariate Calibration. John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Martikainen, J. (2008). Development of contact and wear models in grinding mill DEM-simulation.
M.Sc. thesis, Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo, Finland, 2008.
Morrison, R. D., Cleary, P. W., Sinnott, M. D. (2009). Using DEM to compare the energy efficiency of
pilot scale ball and tower mills. Miner. Eng. (In press)
Powell, M. S., Morrison, R. D. (2007). The future of comminution modelling. Int. J. Miner. Process. 84,
228-239.
Pöschel, T., Schwager, T. (2005). Computational Granular Dynamics. Springer-Verlag.
Sonka, M., Hlavac, V., Boyle, R. (1999). Image Processing, Analysis, and Machine Vision.
Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.
Wills, B. A., Napier-Munn, T. (2006). Wills’ Mineral Processing Technology. Elsevier Ltd.

View publication stats