Embodiments of product handling systems facilitate transfer of individual product items from incoming bulk form into dedicated trays for inspection, sorting, selection, and packaging. Inspection may comprise interrogation of product items within a tray by electromagnetic (e.g., optical, hyperspectral) or other (e.g., physical, acoustic, gas sensing, etc.) techniques. Prior to packaging, product items disposed within the tray may be stored in a moveable carousel responsible for controlling environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, illumination, ambient gases, product-to-product interactions, and/or others. Movement of product items from a carousel's transfer station to an outside staging position may be accomplished using robots and/or conveyor belts. Embodiments may allow rapid, low-cost consumer selection of specific individual product items based upon their accompanying metadata (e.g., source, identifier), in combination with the results of inspection (e.g., visual appearance). Embodiments may receive product items pre-packaged in tray format to expedite inspection, sorting, selection, and packaging.

A method for recovering a posteriori information about the operation of a plant for automatic classification and sorting of fruit, wherein digital images of a reference piece of fruit previously processed by means of the plant are processed so as to identify its first group of individualizing features, which are then compared with each of a series of second groups of individualizing features each corresponding to a different piece of fruit processed by the plant, in order to establish a match; then, there is extraction from an electronic database of operating information which corresponds to information used or generated by the plant for automatic classification and sorting for classification of the relative processed piece of fruit and/or to information about sorting of the relative piece of fruit processed by the plant for automatic classification and sorting, where in the electronic database the operating information is associated with the second group of individualizing features for which during the comparison step the match with the first group of individualizing features has been established.

Particles are sorted into paths based on a measurable parameter by forming them into a stream in at least one duct carried on a body rotating around an axis where the duct is shaped so that the particles are accelerated to cause the particles separated into the duct to be aligned one after another in a row in the duct. The parameter of the particles are measured in the aligned stream one after the other and the particles are directed into one of a plurality of paths as determined by the measurement. In one arrangement the body comprises a disk member having a front face facing a supply conduit and the duct lies in a radial plane of the disk member. In one arrangement the measurement of the parameter is carried out by one or more measurement devices either carried on the disk or outside the edge of the disk.

Produce sorting systems and methods that utilize a conveyor system to move produce through stages such as singulation, camera inspection, weight, and sorting. The sorting systems and methods may utilize conveyor systems having carrier segments that provide for increased speed, efficiency, accuracy, reliability, durability, and lower maintenance.

A small object cassette processing station for depositing small objects into selected cells of a small object cassette. The station comprises a bulk small object bin structured and operable to retain a bulk quantity of small objects of a selected type. The station additionally comprises a small object counting and parsing subsystem configured to parse a plurality of groups of small objects received from the bulk quantity of the small objects retained in the bulk small object bin. Each group of small objects comprises a number of small objects by a central control system. The station further comprise a small object distribution subsystem configured to receive each parsed group of small objects and deposit each parsed group of small objects into one of a plurality of small object cells of a small object cassette as stipulated by the central control system.

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.

Produce sorting systems and methods that utilize a conveyor system to move produce through stages such as singulation, camera inspection, weight, and sorting. The sorting systems and methods may utilize conveyor systems having carrier segments that provide for increased speed, efficiency, accuracy, reliability, durability, and lower maintenance.

Objects in a stream in a duct are singulated and oriented by rotating at least some so that the orientations of all aligned. In one arrangement a slot is provided in the singulation duct into which the shank falls while the head remains in the singulation duct. In another arrangement there is provided a buffering device and a transfer member for transferring the singulated oriented objects from the buffering device to an operating location. In another arrangement a first path changes the orientation of relative to the second path. The objects can be fed from a singulation duct to a supply duct having an exit mouth lying on a rotation axis of the singulation duct.

The present disclosure generally relates to methods and apparatuses that determine quality and authenticity (e.g., adulteration, incorrect labeling, etc.) of agricultural commodities based on near-infrared spectrometers and chemometrics.

Embodiments of a water detection apparatus are disclosed that can detect characteristics of food products. The apparatus may include a conveying mechanism configured to move a food product through an aperture in the apparatus, a transmitter coil configured to transmit a signal within the aperture, and a receiver coil configured to receive the signal altered by the food product, and a signal processing unit configured to determine an output value associated with the food product moving through the aperture. The output value can be based, at least in part, on the signal and the altered signal. The output value can corresponds to a characteristic of the food product.