Fiber-optic Bragg system for the dynamic weighing of municipal waste: A pilot study

Abstract

The publication focus on a pilot study (design, implementation and verification) of a dynamic weighing system designed for weighing of municipal waste during the dumping of garbage containers. The presented solution is based on fiber Bragg gratings (FBG) and can be additionally implemented into the lifting equipment of commonly employed garbage trucks. The weighing principle is based on the measurement of deformation effect and vibration response of the lifting equipment during the dumping of garbage bins. The measuring system leverages the advantages of power measurement, which use the conversion of the spectral shift of modulated light signal during the measurement to the change in optical power of a pair of spectral overlapping Bragg gratings. Two different methods are presented and discussed: the amplitude method, which analyze the maximum amplitude change of the signal and/or the method, which analyze the time period of the dampened oscillation of the lifting device. Due to the small dimensions, the complete system can be installed together with FBG sensors directly onto the lifting device. The pilot tests of the presented system were carried out for over 4 months, showing an accuracy of up to +/- 4.04 kg in the range of 10-100 kg for standardized containers used for municipal waste. The system worked in completely standalone mode and the garbage trucks were not modified in any inconvenient way.