AI-Powered Flour Bag Counting on Conveyor Lines

Within the scope of this project, an automated production monitoring system was developed to count flour bags moving on conveyor lines in flour production and packaging facilities using AI-powered cameras and computer vision technologies.

The system analyzes images received from a camera positioned at a suitable angle above or beside the conveyor. The AI model detects each flour bag, tracks its movement and adds it to the production count when it crosses a predefined virtual counting line.

AI-Powered Flour Bag Detection

The computer vision model is trained to distinguish flour bags from surrounding equipment, operators and other objects on the conveyor. Bags with different colors, designs, brands, printed patterns and weight options can be included according to project requirements.

When the same bag appears across multiple video frames, the object-tracking algorithm continues to follow its unique movement. This prevents a single bag from being counted more than once.

Real-Time Conveyor Counting

Flour bags are counted in real time without stopping the conveyor line. Total production, shift production, hourly production and order-based quantities can be monitored separately.

If the conveyor stops, restarts or changes speed, the system continues tracking the detected objects through the camera images. Project-specific rules can be configured for bags moving in the reverse direction, including subtracting them from the count, preventing duplicate counting or generating an alert.

Product and Bag Type Classification

When required, the AI model can be developed to classify different flour products, packaging designs or bag weights. This makes it possible to report production quantities for different package sizes, such as 25 kg and 50 kg bags, or for separate product groups.

PLC and Production Line Integration

Counting results can be transferred to a PLC, SCADA, MES or production management platform. When the target number of bags is reached, a command can be sent to the PLC to stop the conveyor, change a routing gate or initiate the palletizing process.

Conveyor operating status, product recipe, shift information and production signals received from the packaging machine can be compared with the camera-based count. If the difference between systems exceeds the predefined tolerance, the operator can be notified automatically.

Palletizing and Shipment Verification

The required number of bags per pallet can be defined in the system. When the target quantity is reached, an audible or visual notification can be generated and the counter can automatically restart for the next pallet.

Production, warehouse and shipment quantities can be compared to reduce the risk of missing or excess loading. Counting records can be associated with orders, vehicles, pallets or batch numbers.

Central Monitoring and Reporting

Authorized users can monitor production quantities in real time through a web-based management dashboard. Daily, weekly, monthly, shift-based and product-based production reports can be generated.

Counting time, camera image, product type, shift, production line, operator, batch number and total production quantity can be recorded. Reports can also be exported in Excel or PDF format when required.

Alarm and Inspection Scenarios

Overlapping, fallen, visibly damaged or jammed bags can be detected through computer vision and used to generate alarms. Technical events such as camera disconnection, obstructed camera views or interrupted counting services can also be reported to the central system.

Project Benefits

• Automated and contactless flour bag counting
• Real-time computer vision analysis on conveyor lines
• Object tracking that prevents duplicate counting
• Classification of different bag types and weights
• Total, shift, hourly, product and order-based counting
• Integration with PLC, SCADA, MES and ERP systems
• Verification of pallet and shipment quantities
• Reduced errors caused by manual counting
• Production data logging and reporting
• Automated alerts for abnormal operating conditions