An automated food waste processing system including an enclosure secured to prevent unauthorized access to contents contained therein, the enclosure including a plurality of exterior walls and a food waste processing system housed within the enclosure. The food waste processing system including an imaging system configured to capture a plurality of images of the food waste and the non-biodegradable material received by the sorting receptacle, a processing system configured to process the plurality of images using a trained neural network to identify at least plastic waste and metal waste as the non-biodegradable material when included in the food waste input stream as received by the sorting receptacle, and a sorting system configured to, in response to instructions received from the processing system, automatically locate and remove the non-biodegradable material from the sorting receptacle to create a bio-degradable input stream to the anaerobic digester.

Apparatuses, components and methods are provided herein useful to provide assistance to customers and/or workers in a shopping facility. In some embodiments, a shopping facility personal assistance system comprises: a plurality of motorized transport units located in and configured to move through a shopping facility space; a plurality of user interface units, each corresponding to a respective motorized transport unit during use of the respective motorized transport unit; and a central computer system having a network interface such that the central computer system wirelessly communicates with one or both of the plurality of motorized transport units and the plurality of user interface units, wherein the central computer system is configured to control movement of the plurality of motorized transport units through the shopping facility space based at least on inputs from the plurality of user interface units.

An efficient material recovery facility is disclosed, including: a first sorting device configured to: process a first instruction to remove a first target item from a set of items; and in response to the first instruction, perform a first sorting action to remove the first target item from the set of items, wherein the set of items excluding at least the first target item is to be transported towards a second sorting device, wherein the second sorting device is associated with a same sorting device type as the first sorting device; and wherein the second sorting device is configured to perform a second sorting action to remove a second target item from the set of items excluding at least the first target item in response to receiving a second instruction to remove the second target item.

Systems and methods for sorting recyclable items and other materials are provided. In one embodiment, a system for sorting objects comprises: at least one imaging sensor; a controller comprising a processor and memory storage, wherein the controller receives image data captured by the image sensor; and at least one pusher device coupled to the controller, wherein the at least one pusher device is configured to receive an actuation signal from the controller. The processor is configured to detect objects travelling on a conveyor device and recognize at least one target item traveling on a conveyor device by processing the image data and to determine an expected time when the at least one target item will be located within a diversion path of the pusher device. The controller selectively generates the actuation signal based on whether a sensed object detected in the image data comprise the at least one target item.

Provided are a scrap determination system and method that can improve scrap determination techniques. A scrap determination system (1) comprises: a first scrap determination model (221) generated using teaching data including first learning images, and determines, based on a camera image, grade of scrap in the image and a ratio of the grade; a second scrap determination model (222) generated using teaching data including second learning images, and determines, based on the image, grade of scrap in the image and a ratio of the grade; a selection model (223) configured to determine which of the first scrap determination model (221) and the second scrap determination model (222) is to be used, based on the image; and an output section (24) configured to output information of each grade of scrap and a ratio of the grade determined based on the image using the model selected by the selection model (223).

A device for identifying materials on a conveyor belt (101) by means of X-ray fluorescence comprising an X-ray source (102), from which X-ray radiation (103) is guided onto material parts (104), comprising a detector head (107) containing an X-ray detector array (108) having a multiplicity of detector elements (113, 114, 115) arranged in a planar fashion for receiving X-ray radiation (105) and for converting said X-ray radiation into electrical charge signals, and also an electronic unit (109) for reading out and processing the charge signals, which comprises for each individual detector element a signal channel (120) having in each case: a discriminator unit (117) having at least two adjustable discriminator thresholds (116, 122) for detecting all Gaussian curve-like signals (119) whose amplitude is greater than one of the two or simultaneously greater than both discriminator thresholds, and also one counting unit (118, 121) per discriminator threshold for converting the signals into digital counting events,
wherein the individual detector elements of the X-ray detector array have a spatial resolution of 50 μm to 500 μm with a sensitivity to X-ray radiation in an energy range of between 500 eV and 30 keV, with an energy resolution of less than 0.5 keV at counting rates of up to 100 kcps and relative to an energy of 8.04 keV, the electronic unit comprises a signal channel for each individual detector element of the X-ray detector array,
and each discriminator unit for a specific detector element is in each case electrically connected to the discriminator units of the detector elements that are spatially directly adjacent to said detector element, wherein all the discriminator units are interconnected with one another via a digital and/or analog circuit in such a way that simultaneous occurrence of signals on more than one detector element can be identified and treated electrically separately.

A mobile sorter for sorting materials, such as from a waste landfill. The mobile sorter includes a mobile platform with a mechanism configured to transport the mobile platform over ground. A sorting system mounted onto the mobile platform is configured to identify a specific type of material piece from different types of material pieces and sort that specific type of material piece from the different types of material pieces as the different types of material pieces are conveyed via a first conveyor system through the sorting system from a heap of the different types of material pieces. An apparatus is configured to collect the different types of material pieces from the heap and feed the different types of material pieces onto the first conveyor system.

A method and a waste handling system, wherein waste or recyclable material is transported in carrier bags, bags or sack to a disposal point, and from there onwards by a transport vehicle for further processing. An RFID identifier is used in connection with the carrier bag, bag, or sack, or used in waste transport. A closing member is provided with an RFID) identifier used in closing, or as verification of the closing of the carrier bag, bag, sack. A sensor is arranged in connection with, or in the proximity of, a disposal point, such as a waste room, of the waste system. Information read from the RFID identifier by the sensor is transmitted to a control unit, that is fitted to control the waste transport system based on the information given by the RFID identifier.

A system and a method of sorting scrap particles includes imaging a moving conveyor containing scrap particles using a vision system to create an image. A computer analyzes the image as a matrix of cells, identifies cells in the matrix containing a particle, and calculates a color input for the particle from a color model by determining color components for each cell associated with the particle. A light beam is directed to the particle on the conveyor downstream of the vision system, and at least one emitted band of light from the particle is isolated and detected at a selected frequency band to provide spectral data for the particle. The computer generates a vector for the particle containing the color input and the spectral data, and classifies the particle into one of at least two classifications of a material as a function of the vector.

A device and a method for processing parent parts and for sorting waste parts thereby separated. For this purpose, an optical detection unit is provided, which is configured to detect at least one geometric feature G of each waste part and to generate a control signal S corresponding to the at least one detected geometric feature G. The control signal S is transmitted to a sorting unit. The fed waste part is sorted depending on the received control signal S. It is thus possible to assign the separated waste parts to a specific parent part. This in turn enables an assignment and determination of the material of which the waste part consists, which specifically corresponds to the material of which the parent part consists. This enables the waste parts to be separated into different categories.