Use of sensing technologies in the wood products industry

森林产品为加拿大提供了巨大的经济财富，2008年为加拿大带来了302亿美元的出口收入。在目前的木材制造业务中，木材特性的测量是必不可少的，以确保正确的纤维在正确的时间和成本被引导到适当的制造公司，以生产所需的产品。在所有与质量相关的木材特性中，密度和含水量是最重要的两个，因为它们影响制造过程的效率。为了准确地控制产品质量，需要一种能够对这些木材性质进行真实的实时监测的系统。最近的研究表明，近红外（NIR）光谱，探地雷达（GPR）或磁共振（MR）技术是监测木材性质的有前途的技术。该项目将建立在迄今为止取得的研究进展的基础上，并开发可操作的，负担得起的和强大的系统，用于基于NIR光谱，GPR或MR技术的原木密度和水分含量（MC）的实时监测。与此同时，将进行更基础的研究，以模拟表面和视觉和照明条件对可见光-近红外光谱的影响，从而对水分含量和密度估计，开发一种方法，用于从高光谱图像导出木材MC和密度，并建立一种新的近红外传输设备的原型，用于表征木材性能。该研究团队是多学科的，由来自新玩法大学、多伦多大学、FPInnovations和名古屋大学（日本）的木材科学和传感技术领域的领先研究人员组成。该研究将通过为现有木制品制造公司的过程控制和增值优化提供新技术，为加拿大带来直接利益。

The forest products have provided Canada with great economic wealth, bringing in $30.2 billion in export revenue in 2008. In current wood manufacturing operations, measurement of wood characteristics is essential to ensure that the right fiber is directed to the appropriate manufacturing company at the right time and cost to produce products in demand. Among all the quality-related wood properties, density and moisture content are two of the most important because they affect the efficiency of manufacturing processes. In order to accurately control the product quality, a system able of real time monitoring of these wood properties is needed. Recent research has shown that near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) or magnetic resonance (MR) technologies are promising technologies for monitoring wood properties. This project will build on the research advances made to date and develop operational, affordable and robust systems for real-time monitoring of log density and moisture content (MC) based on NIR spectroscopy, GPR or MR technologies. In parallel, a more fundamental research will be undertaken in order to model the effects of surface and of viewing and illumination conditions on the VIS-NIR spectra and thus on the moisture content and density estimation, to develop a method for deriving wood MC and density from hyperspectral images and to prototype a new NIR transmission device for characterizing wood properties. The research team is multi-disciplinary and consists of leading researchers in wood science and in sensing technologies from University of New Brunswick, University of Toronto, from FPInnovations, and from Nagoya University (Japan). The research will have a direct benefit to Canada by providing novel technologies for process control and value-added optimization in existing wood product manufacturing companies.