Location: Cotton Ginning Research
Project Number: 6066-41440-009-024-R
Project Type: Reimbursable Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jan 1, 2025
End Date: Dec 31, 2025
Objective:
1. Extract fiber quality measures from the images of finished cotton bales that were captured by a robotic camera system during the 2024 season.
2. Analyze bale press pressure data that was captured in 2024 to explore correlations with known cotton properties.
3. Refine the robotic camera and the press pressure capture system and collect a second season of data with both.
4. Investigate the influence of non-lint content on High Volume Instrument cotton fiber measurements.
Approach:
In 2024 a robotic cotton bale camera system was installed in a commercial cotton gin. The system was located at a point in the gin where cotton bales briefly stop moving before the bales are placed into a bag. Imaging a bale of cotton with the robotic camera takes three steps. First the robot detects a cotton bale passing its location, then it moves forward and presses into the side of the cotton bale and captures an image, finally it moves back to its starting location. The camera imaged a significant number of cotton bales over one season. Some bales were skipped due to the imperfect nature of the bale detection system. Each image has a time stamp recorded with it and this will allow for coordination with additional datasets to identify bale skips. This year, refinements to the system will explore new bale detection methods such as color and distance sensors. Part of the work proposed also includes development of a software pipeline for processing the images efficiently and estimating leaf grade based on the images. These estimates will be compared to the classing office data for each bale. The possibility of linking the robotic camera system with a bale press pressure measurement system will also be explored. By monitoring the press pressure, it is possible to tell when the press is about to eject a bale. This information could alert the camera system to be expecting a bale soon. Optimizations to the camera and lighting system will also be explored. Aspects of image capture that require optimization will be identified as the 2024 data is processed.
Researchers at the Cotton Ginning Research Unit in Stoneville previously developed a system to monitor and record the hydraulic pressure of a cotton bale press over time. The system was installed in a commercial cotton gin for the 2024 season where it recorded the press pressure for nearly every bale produced. This data will be used to search for a relationship between micronaire and bale press pressure. Part of this year’s work will include the development of software to post process the pressure data. The software will need to correlate the pressure data with moisture content and other known metrics of the cotton being pressed. Some metrics to use include the micronaire values reported by the classing office for each bale. The cotton bale press pressure capture system will collect a second year of data as well.
To further understand the influence of non-lint content on High Volume Instrument (HVI) quality measurements the plan of work will follow procedures developed in previous studies with samples to be prepared using gin waste sourced from the Cotton Ginning Research Unit micro-gin facility. Samples will be tested across multiple HVI lines. Cotton samples will be prepared from mechanically cleaned cotton which will then be combined with non-lint content of known type and quantity prior to testing on the HVI.