System and method for monitoring fresh concrete being handled in a concrete mixer using trained data processing engines
A system for a concrete mixer having a drum receiving fresh concrete therein. The system generally has: a sensor measuring a set of measurand values indicative of a measurand associated with at least one of the fresh concrete, the drum and components of the concrete mixer; and a controller communicatively coupled to the sensor, the controller performing the steps of: accessing the set of measurand values generated by the sensor; using a trained data processing engine stored on the non-transitory memory, at least one of determining a property value indicative of a property of the fresh concrete, determining a parameter value indicative of a parameter of the drum, and determining that the set of measurand values are indicative of some operating conditions of the concrete mixer; and outputting a signal based on said determining.
1 . A method for monitoring fresh concrete being handled in a drum of concrete mixer, the method comprising:
establishing a wireless communication link between a first controller remotely positioned relative to the concrete mixer and a second controller coupled to a sensor associated with the concrete mixer;
the first controller having a processor and a non-transitory memory having stored thereon instructions that when executed by the processor perform the steps of:
the first controller receiving, from the second controller via the wireless communication link, a set of measurand values generated by the sensor, the measurand values being associated with at least one of the fresh concrete, the drum and components of the concrete mixer;
using a trained data processing engine stored on the non-transitory memory, the first controller at least one of determining a property value indicative of a property of the fresh concrete, determining a parameter value indicative of a parameter of the drum, and determining that the set of measurand values are indicative of operating conditions of the concrete mixer; and
the first controller transmitting a signal indicative of said determining to the second controller, the second controller displaying, on a display interface coupled thereto, at least one of said property value, said parameter value and said operating conditions based on said signal;
wherein, using a value formatting engine stored on the non-transitory memory of the first controller or on a non-transitory memory of the second controller, reformatting the measurand values of the set upon determination that a format of the measurand values of the set is unsatisfactory.
2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the property is a property selected in a group consisting of: viscosity, yield, slump, density and air content.
3 . The method of claim 1 wherein the parameter is selected in a group consisting of: drum cleanliness and drum speed.
4 . The method of claim 1 wherein said determining includes determining that the set of measurand values are indicative of abnormal operating conditions of at least one of the sensor, the drum and the concrete mixer.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said transmitting the signal includes transmitting the signal from the first controller to the second controller via the wireless communication link.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said determining is performed at a first moment in time, and said transmitting the signal is performed at a second moment in time later than the first moment in time.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein set of measurand values includes a set of probe pressure values indicative of pressure exerted on a rheological probe by the fresh concrete as the drum rotates.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of measurand values includes a set of drum speed values indicative of a rotation speed of the drum as measured by a drum speed sensor associated with the concrete mixer, said determining being further based on said set of drum speed values.
9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of measurand values includes a set of hydraulic pressure values indicative of pressure exerted on a hydraulic fluid used to drive rotation of the drum as measured by a hydraulic pressure sensor associated with the concrete mixer, said determining being further based on said set of hydraulic pressure values.
10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of measurand values includes a set of temperature values indicative of temperature of the fresh concrete inside the drum as measured by a temperature sensor associated with the concrete mixer, said determining being further based on said set of temperature values.
11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said determining is further based on a data set measured by at least another sensor.
12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the trained data processing engine is configured to associate property values to corresponding measurand values.
13 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating an alert upon comparing the determined property value of the fresh concrete to a corresponding property value threshold, the alert being indicative of abnormal operating conditions.
14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein said generating includes at least one of transmitting the alert to an external network and storing the alert in an accessible memory system.
15 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising triggering maintenance of at least one of the sensor, the drum and the concrete mixer based on the alert.
16 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said determining performed by the first controller further involves executing at least one of: one or more artificial neural network(s), one or more support vector machine(s), one or more capsule-based network(s), one or more linear discriminant analysis module(s), and one or more classification tree module(s).