Automated Volume Measurement of A Waste Bin with A Smartphone App Based on Photogrammetric Methods

Abstract

In order to get accurate information about the volume of a partly filled bin of packaging waste a dedicated smartphone app was developed. The main functions of the app are to collect sets of images, which are sent to an external server (cloud) for automatic photogrammetric image processing. The results, basically the filling volume is transferred back to the user. The photogrammetric workflow includes an orientation and a volume calculation phase. The workflow was extensively tested for its functionality, performance, reliability and possible sources of error. Thereby several tests were conducted to estimate the optimum number of images, the best image configuration and the influence of different filling levels. The results demonstrate, that the filling volume may be automatically and accurately determined, if the configuration of the images is appropriate. Best results were obtained with many images taken nearly vertically.