Fast Estimation of Loader’s Shovel Load Volume by 3D Reconstruction of Material Piles

Abstract Fast and accurate measurement of the volume of earthmoving materials is of great significance for the real-time evaluation of loader operation efficiency and the realization of autonomous operation. Existing methods for volume measurement, such as total station-based methods, cannot measure the volume in real time, while the bucket-based method also has the disadvantage of poor universality. In this study, a fast estimation method for a loader’s shovel load volume by 3D reconstruction of material piles is proposed. First, a dense stereo matching method (QORB–MAPM) was proposed by integrating the improved quadtree ORB algorithm (QORB) and the maximum a posteriori probability model (MAPM), which achieves fast matching of feature points and dense 3D reconstruction of material piles. Second, the 3D point cloud model of the material piles before and after shoveling was registered and segmented to obtain the 3D point cloud model of the shoveling area, and the Alpha-shape algorithm of Delaunay triangulation was used to estimate the volume of the 3D point cloud model. Finally, a shovel loading volume measurement experiment was conducted under loose-soil working conditions. The results show that the shovel loading volume estimation method (QORB–MAPM VE) proposed in this study has higher estimation accuracy and less calculation time in volume estimation and bucket fill factor estimation, and it has significant theoretical research and engineering application value.