A dynamic fluid level monitoring application using hough transform and edge enhancement

Fluid level monitoring is a common control task in chemical processes. The on-line level monitoring of fluids with different densities is a complex task to be accomplished using traditional sensors, as floats for example. Most of the classic sensors have parameters that need to be recalibrated several times when monitoring liquids with different densities. To accomplish the recalibration, the process must be frequently paused to suit the new liquid characteristics. Besides, some traditional level monitoring methods are not safe for use with flammable liquids. In this paper we propose a new density invariant and non contact approach for level monitoring that is based on image processing Hough transform and image normalization. A prototype was implemented and an experiment in laboratory was carried out to test the performance of the proposed model.