The main area of research delineated in this thesis provides instances when Computer vision based technology has shown tremendous productivity gains in the Oil sands industry in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. Specifically, the interface between Bitumen-froth (crude oil) and the Middlings (Sand) in separation cells (during the extraction process) is estimated in real time from camera video and used for automatic control of the interface level. Two original algorithms have been developed which solve the interface estimation problem using techniques ranging from image analysis, estimation theory (Particle filters) and probabilistic reasoning. These ideas are discussed in chapters three and four. The first chapter of this thesis discusses the broad area of Computer vision research as a knowledge basis for the current work. Computer vision (automatic image analysis) has been presented starting from the basics and culminating in advanced algorithms that are used frequently. The methods described in this chapter form the foundation of the work that follows in the subsequent chapters. After the introduction to automatic image analysis, a set of Monte Carlo simulation based methods called Particle filters are introduced in the second chapter. These Monte Carlo filters assume importance in the current work as they are used to derive one of the main results of this thesis. A large part of this chapter though is devoted to the introduction of the concept of measure theoretic probability which is used in proving the convergence of Particle filters. Another application of Computer vision techniques is also developed in this thesis (in chapter five) to treat the problem of automatic interface and boundary detection in X-ray view cell images. These images are typically used to observe liquid-liquid and liquid-vapour phase behaviour of heavy oils such as Bitumen in chemical equilibrium investigations. The equilibrium data would then be used to enhance Bitumen separation technologies. Manual tracking of the interfaces between these phases for different mixtures and conditions is time consuming when a large set of such images are to be analysed. A novel algorithm is developed that is based on state-of-the-art in Computer vision techniques and automates the entire task. / Process Control

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Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:08:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Geraldo de Moura Lacerda_DISSERT.PDF: 1911121 bytes, checksum: 19c68900a038404a86d6d95ce757a46b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-12-09 / This work presents a proposal to detect interface in atmospheric oil tanks by installing a differential pressure level transmitter to infer the oil-water interface. The main goal of this project is to maximize the quantity of free water that is delivered to the drainage line by controlling the interface. A Fuzzy Controller has been implemented by using the interface transmitter as the Process Variable. Two ladder routine was generated to perform the control. One routine was developed to calculate the error and error variation. The other was generate to develop the fuzzy controller itself. By using rules, the fuzzy controller uses these variables to set the output. The output is the position variation of the drainage valve. Although the ladder routine was implemented into an Allen Bradley PLC, Control Logix family it can be implemented into any brand of PLCs / Este trabalho apresenta uma proposta para instala??o de um transmissor de n?vel por press?o diferencial que ser? usado para detec??o de interface em tanques de Petr?leo instalados pela Petrobras no estado do Rio Grande do Norte. Este transmissor medir? a vari?vel controlada n?vel, que ser? usada como entrada para um controlador fuzzy implementado em rotina ladder em um CLP Contrologix da Rockwell Automation. Este controlador comandar? a abertura ou fechamento das v?lvulas de sa?da de ?leo nos tanques, com o intuito de garantir a m?xima sa?da de ?gua no fundo do tanque sem a presen?a de ?leo. Apesar se existirem v?rias tecnologias para detec??o da interface, conforme ser? mostrado adiante, o controle da interface ? feito de forma manual, ou seja, por interm?dio do operador atrav?s de retiradas de amostras dos fluidos nos tanques em v?lvulas conhecidas como v?lvulas de retirada de amostras (tamb?m conhecidas como try cocks). O grande entrave ao uso das tecnologias existentes ? a complexidade do processo de tratamento, as varia??es na carga do petr?leo recebido, exist?ncia de sulfetos de ferro, etc. Neste trabalho, ? apresentada uma breve teoria sobre emuls?es, sobre os processos de separa??o de petr?leo e das v?rias tecnologias de detec??o de interface dispon?veis no mercado. Em seguida, a teoria de sistemas fuzzy ? comentada, bem como o projeto Detec??o de Interface baseado na medi??o de n?vel e uso de controladores fuzzy, objeto deste estudo, para fins de obten??o do t?tulo de Mestre em Engenharia de Petr?leo