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High speed M&M sorting machine

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Re: High speed M&M sorting machine

#21

Post by wahsd »

Animats wrote: post #17

That's low-speed sorting. This is high-speed sorting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DogZJmThRSE That's a high-speed computer-vision optical pea sorter. Yes, each and every pea in that huge flow of peas is examined by a computer vision system. Tiny high-speed air jets are kicking out the rejects during the brief period the peas are in free flight. Here's a blueberry sorting machine, throwing out anything that doesn'…

I don't get a sense how the first machine actually does the physical separation, but the second one seems to be an air jet or something?

That second machine seems to have quite a lot of false positives, but I guess better waste some blueberries than have to deal with customers finding beetles in their berries.

Re: High speed M&M sorting machine

#22

Post by dferr »

Animats wrote: post #17

That's low-speed sorting. This is high-speed sorting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DogZJmThRSE That's a high-speed computer-vision optical pea sorter. Yes, each and every pea in that huge flow of peas is examined by a computer vision system. Tiny high-speed air jets are kicking out the rejects during the brief period the peas are in free flight. Here's a blueberry sorting machine, throwing out anything that doesn'…

I wonder, (and wouldn't be surprised) if the M&M factory already has something similar in place for Quality Control. Anyone working in/near the food industry know the answer to this?

Re: High speed M&M sorting machine

#23

Post by at-fates-hands »

Animats wrote: post #17

That's low-speed sorting. This is high-speed sorting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DogZJmThRSE That's a high-speed computer-vision optical pea sorter. Yes, each and every pea in that huge flow of peas is examined by a computer vision system. Tiny high-speed air jets are kicking out the rejects during the brief period the peas are in free flight. Here's a blueberry sorting machine, throwing out anything that doesn'…

You forgot to add this little bit of info about your pea sorter:

Sorting up to and beyond 20 metric tons (44,000 pounds) of processed vegetables or fruit per hour

To quote my buddy from Maine, "It's WICKED FAST!"

Re: High speed M&M sorting machine

#24

Post by whyaduck »

stinos wrote: post #19
Animats wrote: post #17

That's low-speed sorting. This is high-speed sorting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DogZJmThRSE That's a high-speed computer-vision optical pea sorter. Yes, each and every pea in that huge flow of peas is examined by a computer vision system. Tiny high-speed air jets are kicking out the rejects during the brief period the peas are in free flight. Here's a blueberry sorting machine, throwing out anything that doesn'…

Ha, came here to post this as well. High speed is relative :] I've done similar hardware things in the past and my initial ideas when I read the orignal article were: - what kind of sensor are they using that they need 2 seconds to scan? - in comparision with 2 seconds, a phone camera with results sent over bluetooth is indeed fast. Not my branch at all, but I wonder what latencies he's looking at? Should surely be t…

I develop sort/test software for a semiconductor manufacturer. The M&M sorter looks pretty fast to me :)

Re: High speed M&M sorting machine

#25

Post by brianwawok »

dferr wrote: post #22
Animats wrote: post #17

That's low-speed sorting. This is high-speed sorting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DogZJmThRSE That's a high-speed computer-vision optical pea sorter. Yes, each and every pea in that huge flow of peas is examined by a computer vision system. Tiny high-speed air jets are kicking out the rejects during the brief period the peas are in free flight. Here's a blueberry sorting machine, throwing out anything that doesn'…

I wonder, (and wouldn't be surprised) if the M&M factory already has something similar in place for Quality Control. Anyone working in/near the food industry know the answer to this?

I am pretty sure they get made 1 color at a time, they wouldn't be combined before being inspected... Why combine then go through a new machine to uncombine?

Re: High speed M&M sorting machine

#26

Post by thechao »

Animats wrote: post #17

That's low-speed sorting. This is high-speed sorting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DogZJmThRSE That's a high-speed computer-vision optical pea sorter. Yes, each and every pea in that huge flow of peas is examined by a computer vision system. Tiny high-speed air jets are kicking out the rejects during the brief period the peas are in free flight. Here's a blueberry sorting machine, throwing out anything that doesn'…

I used to be in the field of ultra-high-speed flow cytometry. We were working on developing 1-mega-event sorters around 10 years ago.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cyto.a.20160/full

James Leary was our PI.

Re: High speed M&M sorting machine

#27

Post by Animats »

wahsd wrote: post #21
Animats wrote: post #17

That's low-speed sorting. This is high-speed sorting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DogZJmThRSE That's a high-speed computer-vision optical pea sorter. Yes, each and every pea in that huge flow of peas is examined by a computer vision system. Tiny high-speed air jets are kicking out the rejects during the brief period the peas are in free flight. Here's a blueberry sorting machine, throwing out anything that doesn'…

I don't get a sense how the first machine actually does the physical separation, but the second one seems to be an air jet or something? That second machine seems to have quite a lot of false positives, but I guess better waste some blueberries than have to deal with customers finding beetles in their berries.

The pea-sorting machine, like all the small-item sorters, uses a row of small air jets controlled by the computers. Here's a more advertising-like video with slow-motion imagery of the action at the air jet station.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbSxlZ6J1h4

It's amazing that individual sorting of rice grains is affordable, but it is. Larger fruit and vegetable items used to be graded by people, but there are machines for that, too.

Machinery like this helps to make "Amazon Fresh" possible. With computers inspecting produce, there's less need for people to shop for it themselves. Webvan tried to do this 15 years ago and had quality complaints. That problem has been solved.

Re: High speed M&M sorting machine

#28

Post by adam12 »

brianwawok wrote: post #25
dferr wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder, (and wouldn't be surprised) if the M&M factory already has something similar in place for Quality Control. Anyone working in/near the food industry know the answer to this?

I am pretty sure they get made 1 color at a time, they wouldn't be combined before being inspected... Why combine then go through a new machine to uncombine?

I am pretty sure dferr is referring to the pea sorter.

Re: High speed M&M sorting machine

#29

Post by msoad »

Animats wrote: post #17

That's low-speed sorting. This is high-speed sorting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DogZJmThRSE That's a high-speed computer-vision optical pea sorter. Yes, each and every pea in that huge flow of peas is examined by a computer vision system. Tiny high-speed air jets are kicking out the rejects during the brief period the peas are in free flight. Here's a blueberry sorting machine, throwing out anything that doesn'…

A friend of mine developed a machine that separates pistachios by amount of "openness" of the their shell. They user image processing and had to it one by one in a pipe because they had to scan the pistachio from multiple angle to make the decision.
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