JP6525271B2 - Residual feed measuring device and program for measuring residual feed - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an apparatus for measuring the amount of remaining bait and a program for measuring the amount of remaining bait, and is particularly suitable for use in an apparatus for measuring the amount of feed deposited on the feeding tank of livestock based on a photographed image.

  In the breeding of dairy cows and beef cattle, the farmer's business condition is deteriorating because feed prices and prices of calves tend to rise, and an increase in productivity per cow and unit feed is required. . As a method for that purpose, it is necessary to feed the feed according to the amount of nutrition required by each animal at that time without excess and deficiency, and technical development for that purpose is carried out.

  For example, it is performed to estimate the amount of nutrition needed at that time from the amount of feed actually consumed by livestock among the amount of feed fed on the feeding tank. The amount of feed actually consumed by the livestock can be estimated by measuring the amount of feed deposited on the feeding tank after intake, that is, the amount of remaining feed. Therefore, there is a need for development of a technique for accurately measuring the amount of remaining feed for each individual.

  As a conventional technique used for measurement of the amount of remaining feed, the method of installing a weight scale on the feeding tank of each individual or photographing the feeding tank of each individual using a three-dimensional camera, and analyzing the photographed image There is a method to measure the amount of remaining feed. However, since the weight scale is expensive to install, its application to production sites is difficult. Also in the method using a three-dimensional camera, if a large number of cameras are prepared and fixedly installed for each feeding tank of each individual, application to production sites is difficult because it requires a large cost.

  On the other hand, it is possible to reduce the number of installed cameras by adopting a method of moving the camera by providing a moving mechanism such as a rail in the barn and taking a picture while stopping at each feeding tank position. Moreover, if the rail of the existing automatic feeder is combined as a camera moving mechanism, it is possible to suppress the increase in equipment investment. However, in this case, it is necessary to accurately control the stop position of the camera relative to the feeding tank of each individual.

  In addition, in the barn, it is difficult to photograph the entire feeding tank from directly above due to the presence of the neck rail and the neck of the cow protruding to the feeding tank side. Therefore, since it is necessary to set a camera in the position which made it incline with respect to the tank surface, it is also necessary to identify the positional relationship of both. Furthermore, in the case of an image taken from a position oblique to the feeding tank surface, the area occupied by the subject on the image differs depending on the position captured in the photographed image even with the same residual feeding amount, so it is necessary to provide means for correcting this. There is.

  Conventionally, there has been known a technique for reducing the measurement error with respect to the subject of such oblique photographing (see, for example, Patent Document 1). In the apparatus described in Patent Document 1, a field is photographed from the sky, and an image of a crop portion discretely present is extracted from the photographed image. Then, after correcting the extracted image to a state seen from directly above, the growth amount of the crop is measured from the image after the correction.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-9664

  However, in the technology described in the above-mentioned Patent Document 1, after the processing of selectively extracting the image of the crop part from within the photographed image, and the processing of correcting the extracted image into a state seen from directly above, the growth amount is There is a problem that calculation load becomes high because it is measured.

  The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and it is possible to measure the amount of feed deposited on the stocking tank of livestock with less calculation load based on the photographed image. With the goal.

  In order to solve the problems described above, in the present invention, a plurality of discrete measurement points are set in a first three-dimensional coordinate system having a stocking plane of livestock in a coordinate axis plane, and the plurality of set points are set. The measurement points are converted into measurement points on a second three-dimensional coordinate system having in the coordinate axis plane a plane perpendicular to the optical axis of the three-dimensional camera installed obliquely above the feeding tank. Then, the image at the measurement point after conversion is extracted from the photographed image taken by the three-dimensional camera from obliquely above the feeding tank, and the amount of feed present on the feeding tank is measured based on the extracted image. .

  According to the present invention configured as described above, the feed amount is measured only on the image portion of the plurality of discrete measurement points after conversion based on the image itself taken from obliquely above the feeding tank. Therefore, according to the present invention, after the processing of selectively extracting the image of the feed portion from within the photographed image and then the processing of correcting the extracted image, the converted measurement at the predetermined position is performed. The amount of feed can be properly measured only from the image of the point. Thereby, based on the photographed image, the amount of feed deposited on the stocking tank of the livestock can be measured with a small calculation load.

It is a block diagram showing an example of functional composition of a remaining food amount measuring device by this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of arrangement | positioning of a camera. It is a figure which shows the example of a setting of the measurement point by the measurement point setting part of this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the measurement point after conversion by the measurement point conversion part of this embodiment. It is a schematic diagram which shows the example of calculation of residual bait height. It is a figure which shows the other setting example of the measurement point by the measurement point setting part of this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the other setting example of the measurement point by the measurement point setting part of this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the other setting example of the measurement point by the measurement point setting part of this embodiment. It is a schematic diagram which shows the other calculation example of residual bait height.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described based on the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a functional configuration of the remaining bait amount measuring device 100 according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the residual food measuring apparatus 100 according to this embodiment has, as its functional configuration, a measuring point setting unit 11, a measuring point conversion unit 12, a photographed image input unit 21, an image extracting unit 22 and feed amount measurement. A unit 23 is configured.

  Further, a three-dimensional camera 200 and an input / output device 50 are connected to the remaining bait amount measuring device 100. The remaining food amount measuring apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment measures the remaining food amount, which is the uneaten amount of the feed fed to a domestic animal (for example, a cow), from the photographed image. The input / output device 50 may be detachably connected to the remaining bait amount measuring device 100 by wire or may be connected wirelessly. Alternatively, the input / output device 50 may be provided integrally with the remaining bait amount measuring device 100.

  The functional blocks 11 to 12 and 21 to 23 of the remaining amount measuring apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 1 can be configured by any of hardware, DSP (Digital Signal Processor), and software. For example, when configured by software, each of the functional blocks 11 to 12 and 21 to 23 is actually configured to include a CPU, a RAM, a ROM, and the like of a computer, and is used as a storage medium such as a RAM, a ROM, a hard disk, or a semiconductor memory. It is realized by operating a stored program.

  The input / output device 50 is an interface for setting various parameters related to measurement of the amount of remaining bait, and displaying the measurement result. Specifically, the input / output device 50 includes an input device such as a mouse, a keyboard, and a touch panel, and an output device such as a display.

  The three-dimensional camera 200 is a camera capable of obtaining, for each pixel, a depth value as depth information to a subject in addition to the RGB values of the image. The depth value is the distance between a plane where the pixel is located and a plane perpendicular to the optical axis center and the focal point. The three-dimensional camera 200 and the remaining amount measuring device 100 may be connected by wire or may be connected wirelessly.

  FIG. 2 is a view showing an arrangement example of the three-dimensional camera 200. As shown in FIG. In the example of FIG. 2, a moving mechanism 212 capable of traveling by being suspended on a rail 211 of an automatic feeder installed in a bridged cowshed is provided, and a three-dimensional camera 200 is attached to the moving mechanism 212. Generally, in a cow barn, it is difficult to photograph the entire feeding tank 301 from directly above due to the presence of the neck rail 303 protruding from the cattle floor 302 to the feeding tank 301 side and the neck of a cow coming out from the feeding bed 302 to the feeding tank 301 side. It is. Therefore, the three-dimensional camera 200 shoots the feeding tank 301 from diagonally above.

  In the example shown in FIG. 2, the three-dimensional camera 200 is attached to the moving mechanism 212, and the remaining bait amount measuring device 100 (not shown in FIG. 2) is wirelessly connected to the three-dimensional camera 200. When the three-dimensional camera 200 and the remaining bait amount measuring device 100 are connected by wire, the remaining bait amount measuring device 100 is also attached to the moving mechanism 212. Then, the input / output device 50 is wirelessly connected to the remaining bait amount measuring device 100.

  In the first three-dimensional coordinate system in which the measurement point setting unit 11 has a plane on which a feeding tank 301 of livestock is located in a coordinate axis plane (for example, an XY plane), discretely arranged as seen from a virtual viewpoint above the feeding tank 301 Set multiple measurement points. The first three-dimensional coordinate system has, for example, a predetermined point on the feeding surface (for example, the central point of feeding tank 301) as the origin, and the direction of one side of feeding tank 301 having a rectangular shape is the X axis and the direction of the other side It is a coordinate system in which the Y axis and the height direction are Z axes. Further, it is assumed that the virtual viewpoint is at a predetermined distance from the center point of the feeding tank 301 on the XY plane.

  The setting of the measurement point by the measurement point setting unit 11 is performed through the user operation on the input / output device 50. For example, a predetermined setting screen is displayed on the display of the input / output device 50, and a plurality of measurement points are set by operating the input device on the setting screen. The measurement point setting method is arbitrary, but as an example, the measurement point setting unit 11 divides a rectangular area into grids at equal intervals, sets a plurality of small areas, and sets representative points in the plurality of small areas. Set as a measurement point. Here, although the setting method of the representative points is arbitrary, it is possible to use each intersection of the grid as a measurement point as an example. Alternatively, the central point of the small area may be used as the representative point.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of setting of measurement points by the measurement point setting unit 11. In the present embodiment, a measurement area 301P to be a measurement object of residual food is set, and a plurality of discrete measurement points 30 are equally set in the measurement area 301P. In the example of FIG. 3, while setting up the measurement area 301P which becomes a rectangle in the state which looked down on the feeding tank 301 from the upper right, the height and width of the said measurement area 301P are divided equally, and each intersection position of a lattice is made into the measurement point 30. . The measurement area 301P is preferably set to be the same size and size as the feeding tank 301, but only a specific area in the feeding tank 301 may be set as the measurement area 301P.

  As shown in FIG. 2, when the feeding tank 301 is photographed from diagonally above, the feeding tank 301 is photographed larger toward the near side to the three-dimensional camera 200 and smaller toward the back side farther from the three-dimensional camera 200. Therefore, if the amount of remaining feed is measured using the entire feeding tank 301 part of the image obtained from the three-dimensional camera 200, the amount of remaining feed on the near side is largely reflected compared to the amount of remaining feed on the back side, The measurement error may increase. On the other hand, such measurement error can be obtained by evenly arranging the measurement points 30 as shown in FIG. 3 and measuring the height of the remaining bait on each measurement point 30 to obtain the amount of remaining bait. It is possible to avoid.

  The setting of the measurement area 301P can be performed, for example, by a drag operation of a mouse or a touch operation on a touch panel. Alternatively, it may be performed by inputting values such as the size and position (coordinates) of the measurement area 301P by keyboard operation. Also, the setting of the measurement point 30 can be performed, for example, by inputting the number of divisions in the vertical and horizontal directions. In addition, the setting method shown here is an example, Comprising: It is not limited to this.

  When setting the measurement area 301P and the measurement point 30, an image obtained by photographing in advance the feeding tank 301 not fed with feed is displayed on the setting screen of the display, and the measurement area 301P and the measurement point 30 are superimposed on the image. Is preferably displayed. This is because the appropriateness of the setting can be easily confirmed. The image displayed here may be, for example, an image captured by a camera (which may be the three-dimensional camera 200 or any other camera) from the position of the virtual viewpoint directly above the feeding tank 301, as shown in FIG. It may be an image obtained by photographing the feeding tank 301 obliquely from above with the three-dimensional camera 200 installed on the rail 211. Alternatively, the image may be converted into a planar view so that the image captured from the oblique upper side is in the same state as viewed from directly above. The contents of the image conversion in this case will be described later.

  Among the above three types of images, either an image obtained by photographing the feeding tank 301 from directly above or an image obtained by converting the image of the feeding tank 301 obliquely from above into a planar view is displayed on the setting screen of the display. Is more preferred. This is because it is possible to easily set the measurement region 301P in accordance with the image portion of the feeding tank 301 displayed on the setting screen. In addition, when displaying the image which image | photographed the feeding tank 301 from diagonally upper on the setting screen, it is an image conversion of the image of the measurement area 301P set like FIG. (The inverse conversion of the image conversion described above) may be superimposed on the image of the feeding tank 301 and displayed. In this way, the appropriateness of the setting of the measurement area 301P can be more easily confirmed.

  The measurement point conversion unit 12 sets measurement points based on the conversion information obtained from the correlation of the position and posture of the three-dimensional camera 200 installed obliquely above the feeding tank 301, the position of the virtual viewpoint, and the position of the feeding tank 301. The plurality of measurement points 30 set by the unit 11 are converted into measurement points on the second three-dimensional coordinate system. The second three-dimensional coordinate system is a coordinate system having a plane perpendicular to the optical axis of the three-dimensional camera 200 as a coordinate axis plane and having an intersection point with the optical axis center of the three-dimensional camera 200 as an origin. That is, in the second three-dimensional coordinate system, a predetermined point (for example, a point on the optical axis) on a plane perpendicular to the optical axis connecting the three-dimensional camera 200 and the center point of the feeding tank 301 is an origin Is a coordinate system in which two axes parallel to the X axis are X 'and Y' axes, and the optical axis direction is Z 'axis.

  The conversion information can be obtained in advance by a known calibration process. This conversion information relates not only to the measurement point 30 but also to all pixels of the image. This is because which pixel is set as the measurement point 30 by the measurement point setting unit 11 is arbitrary. The measurement point conversion unit 12 stores this conversion information. The measurement point conversion unit 12 generates a plurality of measurement points 30 set by the measurement point setting unit 11 in the first three-dimensional coordinate system based on the conversion information stored in advance as a second three-dimensional coordinate system. Coordinate transformation to the measurement point of

  In addition, the above-mentioned image conversion which changes the image which image | photographed the feeding tank 301 from diagonally upward into the image which planarly viewed from right above is equivalent to the inverse conversion of the coordinate conversion based on this conversion information (However, all the pixels of an image In that the measurement point conversion unit 12 performs coordinate conversion of only the measurement point 30).

  FIG. 4 is a view showing an example of the result of conversion of the measurement area 301 P and the measurement point 30 set as shown in FIG. 3 by the measurement point conversion unit 12. As shown in FIG. 4, the measurement area 301 P has a trapezoidal shape in which the distance between the right and left is narrowed from the front side to the rear side of the photographed image by the measurement point conversion unit 12 (the front side is the long side and the back side is the short side It is converted into a trapezoidal measurement area 401P.

  Also, the horizontal line connecting the measurement points 30 horizontally in FIG. 3 (line shown in the horizontal direction in the figure) and the vertical line connecting the measurement points 30 vertically (line shown in the vertical direction in the figure) are horizontal lines in FIG. It is converted so that the interval becomes narrower toward the back and the interval between the vertical lines becomes narrower toward the back. Also, along with that, the distance between the measuring points 40 after conversion also narrows from the near side to the far side.

  In addition, although the example of conversion in case the three-dimensional camera 200 is located in the left-right direction center of the feeding tank 301 is shown in FIG. 4, it is not restricted to this. If it is not possible to stop the three-dimensional camera 200 at the center of the feeding tank 301 in the left-right direction due to the relationship with the automatic feeding machine that travels the rails 211 like the three-dimensional camera 200, conversion information is Should be set. In this case, the horizontal lines after conversion are not parallel to one another as well as the vertical lines.

  The photographed image input unit 21 inputs a photographed image obtained by photographing the upper part of the feeding tank 301 of a domestic animal obliquely from above with the three-dimensional camera 200. When wireless connection is established between the remaining bait amount measuring device 100 and the three-dimensional camera 200, wireless communication means is provided in both the remaining bait amount measuring device 100 and the three-dimensional camera 200, and an image captured by the three-dimensional camera 200 Are wirelessly transmitted to the remaining bait amount measuring device 100, and the photographed image input unit 21 inputs the same. Note that the image captured by the three-dimensional camera 200 is recorded in a removable storage medium in the three-dimensional camera 200, and the removable image storage unit is connected to the remaining amount measuring device 100, whereby the captured image input unit 21 is a removable storage medium. The captured image may be input from

  The image extraction unit 22 extracts an image at a measurement point (hereinafter, referred to as a converted measurement point 40) converted by the measurement point conversion unit 12 from the photographed image input by the photographed image input unit 21.

  The feed amount measurement unit 23 measures the amount of feed on the feeding tank 301 based on the images at the plurality of converted measurement points 40 extracted by the image extraction unit 22. For example, the feed amount measurement unit 23 obtains the height of the feed at the measurement point 40 after conversion based on the depth value obtained as one information of the image captured by the three-dimensional camera 200, and multiplies the height by a predetermined area. By this, the amount of feed at the converted measurement point 40 is calculated. Then, the feed amount measurement unit 23 measures the remaining feed amount on the feeding tank 301 by totaling the feed amounts calculated as described above at the plurality of converted measurement points 40.

  As an example, the feed amount measurement unit 23 obtains a value obtained by subtracting the depth value from the distance from the three-dimensional camera 200 to the measurement point 40 after conversion as the height of the feed. FIG. 5 is a schematic view for showing this. As shown in FIG. 5, residual feed F is deposited in the feeding tank 301. The three-dimensional camera 200 installed obliquely above the feeding tank 301 captures a three-dimensional image of the feeding tank 301. In FIG. 5, the position of the measurement point 40 after conversion is shown on the feeding tank 301.

Here, a method of determining the height of the remaining bait F deposited on a certain converted measurement point 40 _n will be described. Assuming that the straight line connecting the converted measurement point 40 _n and the three-dimensional camera 200 is L, the length d of the straight line L is obtained by geometrical calculation from the positional relationship between the three-dimensional camera 200 and the converted measurement point 40 _n be able to. Further, a position where the straight line L passes through the surface of the remaining bait F is a remaining bait point U, and a distance between the measurement point 40 _n after conversion and the remaining bait point U is h ′.

Since the depth value obtained by the three-dimensional image data captured by the three-dimensional camera 200 represents the distance between the three-dimensional camera 200 and the remaining bait point U, the three-dimensional image data at the converted measurement point 40 _n can be read For example, the distance (depth value) s between the three-dimensional camera 200 and the remaining bait point U can be obtained. Thus, the distance h 'is
h '= d-s
It becomes.

Although the original height of the remaining food F at the measurement point 40 _n after conversion is h, in the present embodiment, the distance h 'is regarded as the remaining food height h. This is because the difference between the original height h and the distance h ′ can be said to be sufficiently small. That is, although the pitch between adjacent converted measurement points 40 is illustrated largely in FIG. 5 for convenience of explanation, actually, the converted measurement points 40 are converted into intersections into which the converted measurement area 401P is divided into several hundreds in the vertical and horizontal directions. As it is set, the distance between the converted measurement points 40 is short. And since the shape of residual food F made into a measuring object in this embodiment does not change rapidly in a short section, and height h is small enough compared with length d of straight line L, original height The difference between h and the distance h 'is sufficiently small.

Feed amount measuring unit 23, by multiplying the Zan'esa height h 'and (≒ h) and a predetermined area S in calculated post-conversion measurement point 40 _n as described above, Zan'esa amount in the post-conversion measurement point 40 _n Calculate (measure) Here, the predetermined area S can be obtained, for example, from the distance between the intermediate positions of the four converted measurement points 40 adjacent to the front, rear, left, and right of the converted measurement point 40 _n .

  The feed amount measurement unit 23 calculates the remaining bait height h ′ at all the converted measurement points 40 in the converted measurement area 401P, and multiplies the remaining food height h ′ by the predetermined area S, whereby the amount of remaining food in the entire feeding tank 301 is obtained. taking measurement. The remaining bait amount thus obtained may be stored as data in the feed amount measurement unit 23, or may be sent to the input / output device 50 and displayed or stored. Further, it may be taken out from the input / output device 50 to the data recording medium.

  In addition, livestock are actually fed by measuring the amount of feed remaining on the feeding tank 301 by the feeding amount measuring unit 23 after feeding a predetermined amount (predetermined amount) of feeding to the feeding tank 301 and after a certain period of time. It is possible to calculate the amount of feed consumed and to estimate the amount of nutrition needed at that time. This intake amount may be stored in the feed amount measurement unit 23 and / or the input / output device 50 instead of the remaining feed amount or together with the remaining feed amount.

  Thus, when the imaging of the remaining food in the feeding tank 301 by the three-dimensional camera 200 is completed or the measurement of the amount of remaining food and / or intake thereafter is completed, the moving mechanism 212 travels the rail 211 of the automatic feeder, The three-dimensional camera 200 moves to the next cow bed 302 and photographs the feeding tank 301. At this time, if there is no change in the form of the feeding tank 301, the already-set converted measurement point 40 may be used as it is. On the other hand, when it is necessary to change the measurement area 301P because the feeding tank 301 is wide or the like, the measurement point 30 needs to be reset.

  In addition, the measuring point 30 is preset by the measuring point setting unit 11 according to each feeding tank 301, and the converted measuring point 40 is calculated by the measuring point conversion unit 12, and the result is used as data to determine the remaining feed measuring device 100. The remaining feed may be measured by storing data of the corresponding converted measurement point 40 according to the tank 301 to be measured.

  As described above in detail, in the present embodiment, the discrete measurement points 30 provided in the measurement area 301 P set in advance on the feeding tank 301 viewed from directly above are disposed obliquely above the feeding tank 301 3 While converting into the measurement point 40 of the corresponding position on the photographed image obtained from the two-dimensional camera 200, the image of the position corresponding to the measurement point 40 after conversion is extracted from the image photographed by the three-dimensional camera 200 from diagonally above Then, the amount of remaining food on the feeding tank 301 is measured.

  According to this embodiment configured as described above, only the image portion of the converted measurement point 40 converted based on the plurality of discrete measurement points 30 based on the image itself taken obliquely from the upper side of the feeding tank 301 The amount of feed is measured for For this reason, the processing of selectively extracting the image of the feed portion from within the photographed image and then the processing of correcting the extracted image is performed only from the image of the converted measurement point 40 at the predetermined position. The amount of feed can be measured. Thereby, based on the photographed image, the amount of feed deposited on the feeding tank 301 can be measured with a small calculation load.

  In particular, since the post-conversion measurement points 40 used to measure the feed amount are coordinate-transformed from the measurement points 30 evenly arranged without causing a bias in the measurement area 301 P, It is possible to prevent the feed amount from being reflected more than feed amounts in other areas. Thus, the amount of feed distributed throughout the feeding tank 301 can be accurately measured.

  That is, as shown in FIG. 2, since the three-dimensional camera 200 shoots residual bait from diagonally above the feeding tank 301, the area on the side of the labor becomes larger in the photographed image (the residual bait is larger The area will be smaller on the back side (the remaining food will be reflected smaller). For this reason, if the amount of remaining food is measured from all the pixels of the photographed image without setting the discrete measurement points 30, the amount of remaining food is excessively calculated in the smaller region on the front side. According to the present embodiment, it is possible to accurately measure the amount of remaining bait from the image of the measurement point 40 after conversion obtained with uniform density from the front side to the back side of the image without causing such a disadvantage.

  In addition, although the said embodiment demonstrated the example which makes the measurement area | region 301P rectangular according to the shape of the feeding tank 301, this invention is not limited to this. For example, the shape may be set such that the number of setting measurement points increases in a region that is more important in evaluating the nutritional intake and health condition of livestock. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, the measurement area 301P 'may be formed in a triangle shape with the bottom side facing the cow bed 302 and the top near the three-dimensional camera 200 as the apex. By doing this, it is possible to reduce the amount of calculation and the amount of data while properly managing livestock.

  Also, as another example, in order to accurately grasp the amount of remaining bait, even if the number of measuring points 30 arranged in a portion close to the cow bed 302 where the variation in the form of the remaining bait is large in the measuring area 301P is increased. Good. That is, the measurement point setting unit 11 may make the number of representative points (measurement points 30) set for each of the plurality of small areas different depending on the place of the small area. Alternatively, the measurement point setting unit 11 divides the measurement area 301P into a grid shape with unequal intervals, sets a plurality of small areas, and sets representative points in the plurality of small areas as measurement points 30, respectively. Good.

  FIG. 7 and FIG. 8 are diagrams showing examples of setting of such measurement points 30. In FIG. In the example of FIG. 7, the measurement points 30 are provided on the grid points equally provided in the horizontal and vertical directions as in FIG. 3, and the position close to the cow bed 302 (one to several lines on the far side of the photographed image) In the small area of (1), a measurement point 30 is further provided in the central part of the small area divided by the grid points.

  Further, in the example of FIG. 8, in addition to the grid points equally provided in the horizontal and vertical directions as in FIG. 3, in the position close to the cow bed 302 (small area of 1 to several lines on the far side of the photographed image) Horizontal and vertical directions are added with horizontal and vertical lines with finer pitches, and the grid points are also set as measurement points 30. As described above, by increasing the number of measurement points 30 at a position close to the cow bed 302, it is possible to improve the measurement accuracy of the important part.

In the above embodiment, the distance h '(value depth value s was subtracted from the distance d to the post-conversion measurement point 40 _n from the three-dimensional camera 200) between the post-conversion measurement point 40 _n and Zan'esaten U Although the example which considers these as residual food height h was demonstrated, this invention is not limited to this. For example, as shown in FIG. 9, the feed amount measurement unit 23 obtains the distance h ′ ′ by performing inverse conversion of the conversion indicated by the conversion information held by the measurement point conversion unit 12 on the distance h ′. This may be regarded as the remaining baiting height h.

Alternatively, the remaining baiting height h may be obtained by calculation. For example, _{assuming that} the coordinates of the converted measurement point 40 _n are (Xo, Yo, 0) and the coordinates of the remaining bait point U are (Xg, Yg, Zg), the converted measurement point 40 _n is a point 40 _n ′ (Xo , Yo, Zg), and performing the same calculation as the above-mentioned inverse transformation at the projection point 40 _n ′ (Xo, Yo, Zg), the projection point U ′ (Xg ′, Yg ′, Zg ′) can be obtained. It is possible to obtain the height of the projection point U ′ by repeating such calculation until the value of | Xo−Xg ′ | + | Yo−Yg ′ | It is possible to set the height h.

  It is also possible to use the following method as another method of calculating the height h. That is, from the coordinates (Xf, Yf, Zf) of another remaining bait point V adjacent to the remaining bait point U in the X-axis direction, δZx = (Xg−Xo) / (Xg−Xf) × (Zg−Zf) It is also possible to calculate and estimate the height h by interpolation of two obtained coordinate values by performing similar calculation for another remaining bait point adjacent in the Y-axis direction.

  Note that, as described above, it can be said that the distance h ′ is sufficiently small from the original height h, so it is not essential to calculate the distance h ′ ′ or to calculate the height h. For the purpose of the present invention to measure the amount of remaining food with less calculation load, an embodiment in which the distance h ′ is regarded as the original height h is preferable.

  Moreover, although the said embodiment demonstrated the case where the planar feeding tank 301 was made into the measuring object of the amount of remaining bait, this invention is not limited to this. For example, even in the case of a hollow or box type feeding tank, their dimensions may be set as parameters of the remaining bait amount measuring apparatus 100 and reflected in the remaining bait amount measurement.

  In addition, any of the above-described embodiments is merely an example of embodying the present invention, and the technical scope of the present invention should not be interpreted in a limited manner. That is, the present invention can be implemented in various forms without departing from the scope or main features of the present invention.

11 measurement point setting unit 12 measurement point conversion unit 21 captured image input unit 22 image extraction unit 23 feed amount measurement unit 50 input / output device 100 residual feed amount measurement device 200 three-dimensional camera

Claims (7)

A measurement point setting unit for setting a plurality of measurement points discretely arranged in a first three-dimensional coordinate system having a feeding tank surface of a livestock on a coordinate axis plane;
A measurement point conversion unit for converting the plurality of measurement points set by the measurement point setting unit into measurement points on a second three-dimensional coordinate system having a plane perpendicular to the optical axis of the three-dimensional camera as a coordinate axis plane; ,
A photographed image input unit for inputting a photographed image photographed by the three-dimensional camera;
An image extraction unit for extracting an image at a converted measurement point, which is a measurement point converted by the measurement point conversion unit, from a photographed image input by the photographed image input unit;
And a feed amount measuring unit configured to measure an amount of feed on the feeding tank based on the images at the plurality of converted measurement points extracted by the image extracting unit.   The measurement point setting unit sets measurement areas for feed amount, divides the measurement areas at equal intervals, sets a plurality of small areas, and sets representative points in the plurality of small areas as the measurement points. An apparatus for measuring the amount of remaining food according to claim 1, characterized in that.   The amount of remaining bait according to claim 2, wherein the measurement point setting unit changes the number of representative points set for each of the plurality of small areas depending on the place of the small area. measuring device.   The measurement point setting unit sets measurement areas for feed amount, divides the measurement areas at unequal intervals, sets a plurality of small areas, and sets representative points in the plurality of small areas as the measurement points. An apparatus for measuring the amount of remaining food according to claim 1, characterized in that:   The feed amount measuring unit obtains the height of the feed at the measurement point after conversion based on the depth value obtained as one information of the photographed image by the three-dimensional camera, and multiplies the height by a predetermined area. The remaining food amount measuring apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the amount of feed at the post-conversion measurement point is calculated.   The remaining feed amount according to claim 5, wherein the feed amount measuring unit obtains a value obtained by subtracting the depth value from the distance from the three-dimensional camera to the measurement point after conversion as the height of the feed. measuring device. Measurement point setting means for setting a plurality of measurement points discretely arranged in a first three-dimensional coordinate system having a feeding tank surface of a livestock on a coordinate axis plane;
Measurement point conversion means for converting the plurality of measurement points set by the measurement point setting means into measurement points on a second three-dimensional coordinate system having a plane perpendicular to the optical axis of the three-dimensional camera as a coordinate axis plane ,
A photographed image input unit for inputting a photographed image photographed by the three-dimensional camera;
Image extraction means for extracting an image at a converted measurement point which is a measurement point converted by the measurement point conversion means from the photographed image input by the photographed image input means, and a plurality of images extracted by the image extraction means A program for measuring the amount of remaining food for causing a computer to function as feed amount measuring means for measuring the amount of feed on the above-mentioned tank based on an image at a measurement point after conversion.