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A DIY M&Ms and Skittles sorting machine

willemm.nl

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Re: A DIY M&Ms and Skittles sorting machine

#11
Here's the commercial version.[1] This machine is sorting peas by color. Peas. Individual peas. Each individual pea is examined by cameras for size, color, and looking like a pea. Rejects are kicked into the reject hopper by an air jet. There are machines like this for most fruit. Typical throughput is a ton per hour. Most fruit and berries go through such machines today. That's why the fruit at the supermarket is so consistent.

The process looks like magic. Color-mixed items go in, and single-color items come out, on a line going so fast that no human can see what's happening. It's amazing to see computer vision systems that fast.

These machines work by putting the items on a conveyor belt, then dropping them on a much faster conveyor to spread them out. The fast conveyor goes past cameras, and at the end, launches the items into free flight for a few inches. While in flight, computer-controlled air jets knock out the rejects.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyGR6A5MWG0

Re: A DIY M&Ms and Skittles sorting machine

#15
post #11

Here's the commercial version.[1] This machine is sorting peas by color. Peas. Individual peas. Each individual pea is examined by cameras for size, color, and looking like a pea. Rejects are kicked into the reject hopper by an air jet. There are machines like this for most fruit. Typical throughput is a ton per hour. Most fruit and berries go through such machines today. That's why the fruit at the supermarket is so…

A friend of mine works for a consulting company specializing in optics. They invented a machine for one client which sorts wheat grains. The machine does spectrography of each individual grain, looking for moulds and fungi as well as heavy metals and more. It's a big rotating drum with small chambers for each grain. After doing the spectrography it shoots each grain off into either the selected or rejected direction.

But it doesn't just reject every bad seed, instead it will optimize to keep within legally accepted limits.

Re: A DIY M&Ms and Skittles sorting machine

#16
post #2

Your video is even more compelling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceGlMV4sHnk

So is the write up. My favorite part:

> I started working on this machine in May ’16 and only finished it in December. It took a lot of time to design and build the machine, and I kept optimizing the parts and software after the first prototype was done. Including all prototypes and spare parts, I spent nearly €500 on this machine. Well worth it, considering everything I learned.

https://willemm.nl/mm-skittles-sorting-machine/

Re: A DIY M&Ms and Skittles sorting machine

#17
post #16
post #2

Your video is even more compelling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceGlMV4sHnk

So is the write up. My favorite part: > I started working on this machine in May ’16 and only finished it in December. It took a lot of time to design and build the machine, and I kept optimizing the parts and software after the first prototype was done. Including all prototypes and spare parts, I spent nearly €500 on this machine. Well worth it, considering everything I learned. https://willemm.nl/mm-skittles-sortin…

Thanks! Url changed to that from http://imgur.com/a/M539W.

Re: A DIY M&Ms and Skittles sorting machine

#18
post #11

Here's the commercial version.[1] This machine is sorting peas by color. Peas. Individual peas. Each individual pea is examined by cameras for size, color, and looking like a pea. Rejects are kicked into the reject hopper by an air jet. There are machines like this for most fruit. Typical throughput is a ton per hour. Most fruit and berries go through such machines today. That's why the fruit at the supermarket is so…

A friend of mine works for a consulting company specializing in optics. They invented a machine for one client which sorts wheat grains. The machine does spectrography of each individual grain, looking for moulds and fungi as well as heavy metals and more. It's a big rotating drum with small chambers for each grain. After doing the spectrography it shoots each grain off into either the selected or rejected direction.…

> But it doesn't just reject every bad seed, instead it will optimize to keep within legally accepted limits.

This is just... I guess the emotion you feel when reading the last paragraph defines you as either technical guy (outrage / resignation, depending on your age and experience) or managerial guy (pure delight).

I am guessing there is a switch that makes it sort properly, you know, for VIP?

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