METHOD FOR IDENTIFYING INDUSTRIAL CABLES

Abstract

In order for a supplier of industrial cables to reduce personnel costs and to guarantee customers a consistently high quality standard promptly and reliably, even for global data traffic, a method for identifying industrial cables, comprising the following steps, is proposed: a. automatic visual identification of multiple different components of an industrial cable, from at least one image file; b. analysis of the geometric relationships and/or functional connections between the components; and c. extraction of individual characteristics of the components from the image file using information obtained in step b. A combination of the visual analysis with existing knowledge, also with the possible option of adding trained knowledge, allows an extremely reliably-functioning method for recognizing industrial cables to be provided.

Claims

1. A method for identifying industrial cables, comprising: automatically visually identifying a plurality of different components of at least one industrial cable from at least one image file; analyzing geometric relationships and/or functional connections between the plurality of different components; and extracting individual features of the plurality of different components from the image file using information obtained from the analyzing of the geometric relationships and/or functional connections between the plurality of different components.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein automatically visually identifying the plurality of different components of the at least one industrial cable from at least one image file comprises at least the automatic visual recognition of the components as individual objects and the allocation of the components to component categories by artificial intelligence.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein at least the following component categories are available for the allocation of the components to the component categories: lines; outer shielding; and cable sheathing.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the lines are further comprised of one or a plurality of the following features: strength and shape of at least one line wire with an electrical conductor and a conductor insulation surrounding the electrical conductor; strength and shape of the conductor insulation; and type and shape of a line shield.

5. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the industrial cable is further comprised of one or a plurality of the following features: outer diameter; presence and type of an outer shield; number of lines; strength of their wires of the lines; material and/or manufacturing method of the wires; strength, shape and/or position of the individual insulations of the wires; material and/or manufacturing method of the insulations; presence and type and shape of individual shieldings and/or a separate protective earth (PE) line; strength and shape of the cable sheathing; and suitability of the cable sheathing for one or a plurality of specific cable glands.

6. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the lines are further comprised of at least one of the following features: size and geometric shape of the lines; at least one functional category; and geometric arrangement of the lines in the industrial cable.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the functional category comprises at least one of the following features: electrical energy transmission; analog and/or digital electronic signal transmission; optical and optoelectronic signal transmission; and pneumatics.

8. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the following component categories are additionally available for the allocation of the components to the component categories: electrical conductors/strands; insulations; and shieldings.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the lines of the industrial cable are further comprised of at least one of the following features: geometric dimensions of the lines; and functional category of the lines.

10. The method as claimed in claim 9, wherein at least one of the components is additionally allocated to at least one of the following functional categories: electrical energy transmission; analog and/or digital electronic signal transmission; optical and optoelectronic signal transmission; and pneumatics.

11. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein item numbers are used as component categories.

12. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein product designations are used as component categories.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

[0087] A preferred exemplary embodiment of the invention is represented hereinafter using drawings and is explained in greater detail hereinafter. For this purpose, a system for identifying an industrial cable 100 from a digital image file is presented. In the drawings:

[0088] FIG. 1 shows an image which is to be analyzed of an industrial cable which is to be identified;

[0089] FIG. 2 shows a flow diagram of a method for identifying the components of the industrial cable from a digital image file which belongs to the image.

[0090] The figures may contain partially simplified, schematic representations. Identical reference numbers are used in part for the same but possibly not identical elements. Different views of the same elements may be scaled differently.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0091] FIG. 1 shows an image which is to be analyzed of an industrial cable 100 which is to be identified. This image is the content of an image file sent by the customer. The image shows a cable cross section with an outer cable sheathing 101 and a shielding 103 embedded therein in the form of a shielding braid which is not graphically represented in the drawing for reasons of clarity. The following components are arranged inside this cable sheathing 101: [0092] a quadruple twisted pair line 1 with four individual twisted pair lines; [0093] two separate single twisted pair lines 1′; [0094] five individual coaxial lines 2, 2′, 2″; [0095] one energy line 3 with three energy line wires 30, 30′, 30″.

[0096] In this case and hereinafter, the same, i.e., principally repeating components, are not always provided with their own reference number for the sake of clarity.

[0097] This rough list alone is already suitable for fundamentally characterizing the industrial cable 100 and for mentally connecting it with functionally comparable other industrial cables.

[0098] For more precise allocation to their respective component categories, the components already specified are, in turn, explained in greater detail by way of further components and their individual composition.

[0099] Of the two separate single twisted pair lines 1′, only one, representative of the other, is explicitly provided with a reference number. In the case of these separate single twisted pair lines, each twisted pair wire pair consists of two wires 10′, which, in turn, are formed from a twisted pair conductor 15′ and a conductor insulation 14′ surrounding it in each case. The wire pair possesses a twisted pair sheathing 11′ as its own sheath with a twisted pair shielding foil 13′ arranged on the inside of it which is not represented in the drawing for reasons of clarity.

[0100] The quadruple twisted pair line 1 possesses, as already mentioned, the four individual twisted pair lines which, in turn, each have two twisted pair wires 10. Each of these wires 10 is formed from a twisted pair conductor 15 and a conductor insulation 14 surrounding it. In this case, the two twisted pair wires 10 together form a twisted pair wire pair in each case. Each twisted pair wire pair is surrounded by its own wire pair sheathing and a shielding foil located inside it, wherein this wire pair sheathing and the shielding foil located inside it belong to the respective twisted pair line and are in fact not provided with a reference number here for reasons of clarity. The four twisted pair lines are together surrounded by a twisted pair sheathing 11 and by a common shielding foil 13 located inside it.

[0101] Only three of the five coaxial lines 2, 2′, 2″ are provided with at least one reference number at all for reasons of clarity. One of these coaxial lines is fully designated as representative of the others. It possesses an electrical inner conductor 25, surrounded by a coaxial insulation 24. This, in turn, is surrounded by an inner shield 23 which, in turn, is surrounded by a coaxial line sheathing 22.

[0102] Moreover, the industrial cable 100 possesses an energy line 3 with three energy line wires 30, 30′, 30″. In the aforementioned manner, here too only one energy line wire 30 is fully designated here. The energy line wires 30, 30′, 30″ each possess an energy line strand 35 as an electrical conductor which is surrounded by a wire insulation 34 in each case. These three energy line wires 30, 30′, 30″ are together surrounded by an energy line sheathing 31 which is also a component of the energy line 3.

[0103] FIG. 2 shows a flow diagram of a method for exemplary automatic identification of the industrial cable 100 from this image file.

[0104] The method is carried out by way of a computer program on a computer server, and comprises the following steps: [0105] a. automatic identification of the basic components 10, 10′, 2, 2′, 2″, 30, 30′, 30″ of the industrial cable 100 from the image file through automatic visual recognition and allocation of the basic components 10,10′, 2, 2′, 2″, 30, 30′, 30″ as individual objects by way of artificial intelligence (AI); [0106] b. analysis of the geometric relationships and/or functional connections between the individual components 10, 10′, 2, 2′, 2″, 30, 30′, 30″; [0107] c. extraction of individual features of the basic components 10, 10′, 2, 2′, 2″, 30, 30′, 30″ from the image file using information obtained from step b.

[0108] In method step a, the following components are firstly separated from one another by way of a so called “convolutional neural network” (CNN), i.e., recognized as different objects and allocated to the different component categories.

[0109] In method step a, owing to a training preceding the method, the system therefore recognizes, for example, the following: [0110] a first object 101 of the category “cable sheathing”; [0111] a second object 1 of the category “quadruple twisted pair line”; [0112] two third objects 10′ of the category “single twisted pair line”; [0113] five fourth objects 2, 2′, 2″ of the category “coaxial line”; [0114] a fifth object 3 of the category “energy line.”

[0115] However, the objects can in this case—depending on the type of previous training—also be allocated to specific, company-internal or public products, namely, their product designations and/or item numbers.

[0116] In method step b, the program firstly recognizes the geometric relationships, namely that the cable sheathing 101 surrounds the other objects. By way of its programmed knowledge, the program concludes that further insulations and strands, as well as further shieldings, if applicable, are located inside the identified cable sheathing 101, even if they have not been optically recognized.

[0117] In method step c, further individual features of the components 10, 10′, 2, 2′, 2″, 30, 30′, 30″ are identified. This includes, for example, the allocation of the energy line 3 and the associated energy lines 30, 30′, 30″ for electrical energy transmission.

[0118] Following the same principles, further visual/geometric features can be derived according to their hierarchy. In this case, the algorithmic image processing incorporates particular physical features, such as repeated arrangements as well as the size ratios of the components, for example.

[0119] The method can, for example, be carried out as follows:

[0120] The image file of the image shown in FIG. 1 consists of a cross sectional representation of the industrial cable 100 which possesses the third object, namely the shielded single twisted pair line 1′. In method step a., the information that a twisted pair line 1′ surrounded by its own sheath is present is firstly obtained for this purpose. It can therefore be concluded in method step b that the single twisted pair line 1′ in all likelihood also possesses a shield 13′, since empirically—and this knowledge is finally programmed into the system—twisted pair lines with insulation but without a shield only exist very rarely. In one further design, such knowledge can also be generated by the system self-learning from its own experience.

[0121] However, in method step a., for example in the case of the quadruple twisted pair line 1, the visual analysis may also have already recognized that the twisted pair conductors 1 are surrounded by any twisted pair shield 13 which is arranged inside the twisted pair sheathing 11, but without the type of this twisted pair shield 13 being able to be precisely identified in method step a.

[0122] This information obtained from step b makes it possible to conclude in both cases in step c that one of each twisted pair shields 13, 13′ exists and that it must be a shielding foil, since in principle only shielding foil is considered for shielded twisted pair lines 1, 1′.

[0123] A very reliably functioning system for recognizing industrial cables is thus provided by the combination of existing knowledge, and optionally also possibly additionally supplemented by learned knowledge, in conjunction with the visual analysis.

[0124] It is clear to the person skilled in the art—unless otherwise specified—that the combinations represented and discussed are not the only possible combinations, even if different aspects or features of the invention are in each case shown in combination in the figures. In particular, mutually corresponding units or feature complexes from different exemplary embodiments can be exchanged with one another.

[0125] These and other changes can be made to the embodiments in light of the above-detailed description. In general, in the following claims, the terms used should not be construed to limit the claims to the specific embodiments disclosed in the specification and the claims, but should be construed to include all possible embodiments along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.