Article
Conveyor Belt Damage Detection with the Use of a Two-Layer
Neural Network
Agata Kirjanów-Bła
˙
zej * and Aleksandra Rzeszowska
Citation: Kirjanów-Bła
˙
zej, A.;
Rzeszowska, A. Conveyor Belt
Damage Detection with the Use of a
Two-Layer Neural Network. Appl. Sci.
2021, 11, 5480. https://doi.org/
10.3390/app11125480
Academic Editor: Fabio La Foresta
Received: 18 May 2021
Accepted: 11 June 2021
Published: 13 June 2021
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4.0/).
Faculty of Electronics, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Janiszewskiego 11/17,
50-372 Wroclaw, Poland; aleksandra.rzeszowska@pwr.edu.pl
* Correspondence: agata.kirjanow-blazej@pwr.edu.pl
Abstract:
Non-invasive conveyor belt diagnostics in damage detection allows significant reductions
of the costs related to belt replacement, as well as the evaluation of belt usability and wear degree
changes over time. As a result, it increases safety in the location where the belt is used. Depending
on the location of a belt conveyor, its length or the type of the transported material, the belt may
undergo wear at different rates, albeit the wear process itself is inevitable. This article presents an
artificial intelligence-based approach to the classification of conveyor belt damage. A two-layer
neural network was implemented in the MATLAB programming language, with the use of a Deep
Learning Toolbox set. As a result of the optimization of the created network, the effectiveness of
operation was at the level of 80%.
Keywords: neural networks; conveyor belts; magnetic method; diagnostics; automatic detection
1. Introduction
The life of the conveyor belt depends on many factors collected in the literature [
1
]—among
other things, it depends on the type of material transported, the specificity of the transport
point as well as the length and age of the conveyor belt. Figure 1 shows the appearance of
a conveyor belt used in mining. This device works continuously, transporting the material
from the tail pulley to the head pulley. During the operation of the belt conveyor, the belt is
passed through both pulleys, changing the running direction on them. Between the pulleys,
along its entire length, the belt is supported by sets of idlers. Above the conveyor belt, there
is a feet chute, the arrangement and shape of which guarantees the correct arrangement
of the discharged material on the conveyor belt and prevents it from spilling out of the
belt area. The material is moved along the belt to the head pulley, where the belt direction
changes, and the load is thrown outside the area of the belt conveyor [2].
Figure 1. Diagram of the conveyor.
The most important and most frequently damaged part of the conveyor is the conveyor
belt. It is estimated that its cost is about 60% of the cost of the entire conveyor [
3
,
4
].
Demands for conveyor belts require that the belt be a high-quality product, which in
turn translates into its cost. The more important is its diagnosis and quick detection of
potential damage when it is possible to remove them because the potential failure of the
belt conveyor generates a cost associated not only with its repair, but also associated with
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 5480. https://doi.org/10.3390/app11125480 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci
