A method for identifying the presence of partly liberated diamonds in a material stream. The method including illuminating a material with a multi-wavelength beam including at least one monochromatic SWIR laser beam, and at least one IR scatter-/anti-scatter laser beam. A sorting process including ejecting objects including material classified as diamond from a transportation direction of the material stream.

Disclosed is a system for sorting copper-bearing ore to select portions having a desired target copper content. The system includes a first magnetic resonance analyzer for measuring the copper content of ore input into the system and a controller that controls a diverter to divert portions of the input ore to a collection path when the copper content meets or exceeds a predetermined cut-off value. The system also includes a second magnetic resonance analyzer to measure the copper content of the ore in the collection path. The measurements are then fed back to the controller where the controller can adjust the predetermined cut-off value above, up or down, to optimize the yield of ore with the targeted copper content.

It is provided an inspection apparatus (10) for visual inspecting elastic particles comprising a conveyor belt (12) for feeding a plurality of particles, particularly in mainly horizontal direction, a fall channel (14) for letting the particles fall downwards due to gravity, wherein the fall channel (14) is arranged downstream the conveyor belt (12), and at least one flap (16) for stopping a horizontal portion of the movement of the particles leaving the conveyor belt (12), wherein the at least one flap (16) is arranged downstream the conveyor belt (12), wherein the flap (16) is resilient in horizontal direction for dissipating at least a part, particularly a majority, of the kinetic energy of the particle aligned in horizontal direction. Due to the resilient flaps (16) a horizontal rebounding of the elastic particles is reduced, so that a sorting out of unwanted particles out of a plurality of elastic particles during a visual inspection with a good accuracy is enabled.

An object sorting system is presented which includes a hopper, a feeder, a roller pair, a pair of orientation flaps, an adjustable assembly, a first and second camera boxes and an ejection assembly. Feeder receives the shells from the hopper and feeds them uniformly over the gap between the rollers which guides and provides fixed orientation to the shells passing through them and conveys the shells which are relatively bigger than the gap between the rollers to one side of the pair of rollers towards the first collection chute by inclining the roller assembly in the range of 0 to 15 degrees towards the first collection chute. A pair of orientation flaps is placed parallel and exactly below the pair of rollers to avoid the deflection of shells caused immediately after passing through the roller gaps.

A system for sorting objects is provided. For instance, the system includes a first and second sensor for observing the objects before and after sorting and a controller having an action agent module and a learning agent module. The controller updates, by the learning agent module, a policy matrix after sorting previously sorted objects. The policy matrix includes state data of the previously sorted objects including sensor data, an action performed by the sorting actuator, and a sorting score. The controller actuates the sorting actuator, calculates a specific sorting score based on a specific action performed by the sorting actuator, and updates the policy matrix to create an updated policy matrix including updated sorting rules. The updated policy matrix is used in sorting subsequent objects. In another example, the controller loads a policy matrix that was determined incrementally during sorting of previously sorted objects.

A system has a conveyor for carrying at least two categories of scrap particles positioned at random on a surface of the conveyor, with at least some of the particles comprising metal. The system has a sensor array with a series of analog inductive proximity sensors arranged transversely across the conveyor. An active sensing end face of each sensor lies in a sensing plane, and the sensing plane is generally parallel with the surface of the conveyor. A control system of is configured to sample and quantize analog signals from the series of sensors in the array, and locate and classify a scrap particle on the conveyor passing over the array into one of at least two categories of material based on the quantized signals. A method for sorting the particles is also provided.

Systems and methods for sorting utilizing an inflatable actuator are disclosed. A sorting system utilizing an inflatable actuator includes an inflatable actuator. The inflatable actuator is disposed in a cantilever beam orientation atop a support surface. The system includes an inflation component coupled to the inflatable actuator to provide an inflation force. Additionally, the system includes a control component configured to send an activation signal to the inflation component responsive to a detection of an object to be sorted. Responsive to the activation signal, the inflation component inflates the inflatable actuator to cause the inflatable actuator to make contact with the object to be sorted. The contact of the inflatable actuator with the object to be sorted causes the object to change from a first trajectory to a second trajectory.

A method for identifying the presence of partly liberated diamonds in a material stream. The method can include illuminating a material with a multi-wavelength beam including at least one monochromatic SWIR laser beam, and at least one IR scatter-/anti-scatter laser beam, capturing a portion of the at least one monochromatic SWIR laser beam after the monochromatic SWIR laser beam has been reflected and/or scattered by the material, producing a SWIR signal based on the captured portion of the at least one monochromatic SWIR laser beam, and capturing a first portion of the at least one IR scatter-/anti-scatter laser beam after the at least one IR scatter-/anti-scatter laser beam has been scattered and optionally reflected by the material.

A seed sorting system for sorting seeds includes a seed transfer station configured to move seeds through the system. An imaging assembly includes a 2D camera configured to acquire 2D images of the seeds as the seeds move through the system and a 3D camera configured to acquire 3D images of the seeds as the seeds move through the system. A sorting assembly is configured to sort the seeds into separate bins based on the acquired 2D and 3D images of the seeds.

Machine and method to separate wood-based materials from other materials. A conveyor belt conveys the group of materials to be separated toward detection members that detect the presence of materials with an organic origin and/or metal materials. Compressed air nozzles selectively thrust downward the materials with an organic origin and/or the metal materials detected by the detection members, under the control of an electronic control unit. A blowing device is disposed downstream of the nozzles to blow air toward the wood-based materials that transit due to inertia above them and thrust them beyond a separation element disposed downstream of the blowing device, while the inert materials, which have a bigger specific weight than the wood-based materials, fall downward due to gravity.