Solar tracking with labview using camera

[darrencgray]

Hello

I am new to labview and  I am looking to track the suns movement with a camera and labview. It is my college project.

My plan is to have use a bar to  cast a shadow on a screen, much like a sun dial, and have the camera take a picture every 5 seconds of that screen. My problem is developing an algorithm to measure the length of the line and the angle of the line with respect to an origin. Any advice!!!!!!!.

Thank you

[ShalB]

Hello darrencgray,

Thanks for your post on this forum.

Can you please give me some more details on what you want to achieve and which part of the project you are stuck at. Are you going to be using LabVIEW Vision Module and Image Acquisition IMAQ for the purpose of your project? Also which USB camera do you intend to use?

You might want to try and find some examples in LabVIEW which can he found in the NI Example Finder which can be accessed from Help>Find Example.

To get you started I think you should try and draw some images and manipulate them accordingly. Please find attached something I have found that might be able to help you with that.

Please let me know the stage of the project you are struggling with and I will see how I can help you further.

Many thanks,

[darrencgray]

Hello

I am new to labview vision and I wiil be using LabVIEW Vision Module and Image Acquisition IMAQ for this project. The camera that I will be using is  a Bosch Dinion LTC0445 camera connected to a PCI chasis. I could use a usb camera but do not have one. I was unable to find any relevant examples for my project within Labview. The idea I have is to track/measure a shadow/line cast by the sun much like a sun dial and have motors altering the position of the panel for best results. When you look at the picture you will notice that I have the screen divided into four quadrants and the ideal position of the shadow is a dot in the center of the screen. I have attached a sample picture of what the camera will be capturing. 

Thank you

[ShalB]

Hi Darrencgray,

Do you have some code that you have already created? Once you have designed and thought your algorithm through, you can post your code here and I will be happy to answer any specfic queries with errors or problems that you are seeing.

If you haven't used LabVIEW before, I believe the following is a great starting point:

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/7D5F60ADBFD9CDC2862572BA005DD96A

Let us know how you are progressing.

[darrencgray]

Hello Shalini B

I would greatly appreciate any help you can give me as my time is running out for my project. I am now using a usb webcam for my project and it is working fine. My latest attempt is to find the outer circle and the inside circle in the image. My plan is to then use a concentric rake to find the line in between those two circles but I am having problems creating a region of interest between the two circles for the rake to work. I think the rake is able to measure the length of the line and also give me the angle at which it is rotated. I then plan to move one motor depending on the angle of the line and the other motor depending on the length of the line. I have included an image that I have to work with.

Thank you very much I am at my wits end here.

Darren

[darrencgray]

Hello Shalini B

I have attached some more code that I have been working on. If you look at the very end of the program I am attempting to create a region of interest using the " CONVERT ANNULUS TO ROI" tool but it is not working. If I could get this working it would be a start but am eventually hoping to get the progam to do it automatically. I was think that unbundling all the values and using only the ones I am interested by creating a cluster but I could not connect it the the concentric rake tool.

Please if you could give me some feedback.

Thank you ALL