**A New Belt Ore Image Segmentation Method Based on the Convolutional Neural Network and the Image-Processing Technology**

**Xiqi Ma 1,2 , Pengyu Zhang 1,2 , Xiaofei Man <sup>3</sup> and Leming Ou 1,2,\***


Received: 7 November 2020; Accepted: 9 December 2020; Published: 11 December 2020

**Abstract:** In the field of mineral processing, an accurate image segmentation method is crucial for measuring the size distribution of run-of-mine ore on the conveyor belts in real time0The image-based measurement is considered to be real time, on-line, inexpensive, and non-intrusive. In this paper, a new belt ore image segmentation method was proposed based on a convolutional neural network and image processing technology. It consisted of a classification model and two segmentation algorithms. A total of 2880 images were collected as an original dataset from the process control system (PCS). The test images were processed using the proposed method, the PCS system, the coarse image segmentation (CIS) algorithm, and the fine image segmentation (FIS) algorithm, respectively. The segmentation results of each algorithm were compared with those of the manual segmentation. All empty belt images in the test images were accurately identified by our method. The maximum error between the segmentation results of our method and the results of manual segmentation is 5.61%. The proposed method can accurately identify the empty belt images and segment the coarse material images and mixed material images with high accuracy. Notably, it can be used as a brand new algorithm for belt ore image processing.

**Keywords:** belt ore measurement; convolutional neural network; image processing; contour detection; OpenCV
