Batchwise-Charged Electric Arc Furnace System

A system for determining a batch profile for a batchwise-charged electric arc furnace (EAF) including one or more charging-buckets, comprising:

• (i) a sensor fusion module including two monochrome cameras configured to provide stereo vision, a RGB camera, an infrared spectrum projector, and a first computer processor in operative communication with the two monochrome cameras, the RGB camera, and the infrared spectrum projector;
• wherein the first computer processor is configured to (a) generate respective depth images via stereo and correlate one or more pixels of the respective depth images to respective 3D coordinates of the respective portions of respective layers of metallic scrap material, and (c) determine respective volumes of the respective portions of the respective layers of metallic scrap material based on at least a portion of the respective 3D coordinates of the respective portions of the respective layers of metallic scrap material;
• (ii) a scrap classifier module in operative communication with the sensor fusion module and comprising a machine learning model and a second computer processor configured to (a) identify respective classifications of the respective portions of the respective layers of metallic scrap material from a group of known metallic scrap materials based on at least a respective portion of the respective RGB digital images received from the sensor fusion module, (b) assign a respective density to the respective portions of the respective layers of metallic scrap material, and (c) determine a respective mass associated with respective portions of the respective layers of metallic scrap material based on (a) the respective volume of the respective portions of the respective layers of metallic scrap material and (b) the respective assigned density.

An electric arc furnace (EAF) system, comprising:

• (i) an EAF including a furnace body defining an interior portion and a set of electrodes extending into the interior portion;
• (ii) one or more charging-buckets;
• (iii) a sensor fusion module mounted above and proximate to the one or more charging-buckets, the sensor fusion module including two monochrome cameras configured to provide stereo vision, a RGB camera, an infrared spectrum projector, and a first computer processor in operative communication with the two monochrome cameras, the RGB camera, and the infrared spectrum projector;
• wherein the first computer processor is configured to (a) generate respective depth images via stereo and correlate one or more pixels of the respective depth images to respective 3D coordinates of the respective portions of respective layers of metallic scrap material, and (c) determine respective volumes of the respective portions of the respective layers of metallic scrap material based on at least a portion of the respective 3D coordinates of the respective portions of the respective layers of metallic scrap material;
• (ii) a scrap classifier module in operative communication with the sensor fusion module and comprising a machine learning model and a second computer processor configured to (a) identify respective classifications of the respective portions of the respective layers of metallic scrap material from a group of known metallic scrap materials based on at least a respective portion of the respective RGB digital images received from the sensor fusion module, (b) assign a respective density to the respective portions of the respective layers of metallic scrap material, and (c) determine a respective mass associated with respective portions of the respective layers of metallic scrap material based on (a) the respective volume of the respective portions of the respective layers of metallic scrap material and (b) the respective assigned density.