Continental conveyor belt AI monitoring system

Technology company Continental’s service solution is designed to monitor conveyor belt systems. It permits early identification of weak points along a belt conveyor system before damage resulting in unscheduled downtimes occurs.

The monitoring system offers a combination of visual and acoustic inspection while also permitting the efficient, data-assisted planning of maintenance intervals. It can replace the current conventional and manual operations by permitting a precise inspection process, reducing verification input and enabling predictive maintenance through sensor-based technologies.

Continental’s service solution addresses different applications and sections. The inspection of open sections and operations is carried out from the air using a drone equipped with infrared and RGB cameras that monitors both sides of the belt conveyor. As soon as the drone has flown over the section under inspection, it returns to an autonomous charging station to upload the data collected to the relevant cloud via an IoT module during the charging process. The image data is processed with the aid of an AI-assisted algorithm and analysed with reference to any detected idler defects.

Continuous maintenance in covered sections or underground conveyors is carried out using fixed microphones installed every 20 to 25 m that capture frequency variations in the numerous idlers. The audio recording is conducted twice a day, with the data being uploaded to the cloud specified above. Events that indicate a damaged idler are then investigated using an AI-based algorithm.