The invention relates to a pneumatic device (10) comprising modules (100), each module having compressed air supply valves (12), the intensity of the compressed air jet supplied by each module (100) being variable according to the combination of valves (12) activated, and outlet nozzles (14) of one or more air jets coming from the modules (100), according to the number of modules (100) activated, the nozzles having aligned outlet orifices. The invention also relates to an object sorting system comprising the pneumatic device.

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate an apparatus for inspecting and sorting a plurality of substrates. The apparatus includes a sorting unit, a first conveyor lane disposed within the sorting unit in a first direction and a first plane, and at least a second conveyor lane disposed within the sorting unit, the second conveyor lane positioned in a second direction at an angle of greater than about 45 degrees relative to the first direction, wherein the second conveyor lane is positioned in a second plane that is different than the first plane.

An inspection system is configured for use with a conveyer apparatus including carrier bars. Each carrier bar conveys pellet-shaped articles along a predetermined path. The inspection system includes at least one camera unit for sensing a predetermined characteristic of the pellet-shaped articles, a removal unit, and a controller. The removal unit, downstream from the at least one camera unit, removes selected pellet-shaped article(s) from the carrier bar(s) depending on whether the characteristic is sensed by the at least one camera unit. The controller is in communication with the at least one camera unit and the removal unit. The controller provides a signal to the removal unit in accordance with the sensed characteristic. The removal unit includes a rotatable ejection drum having extended vacuum nozzles along its length, equal to the number of articles conveyed in each carrier bar. Each vacuum nozzle selectively removes article(s) from the carrier bar(s) by suction.

An inspection system is configured for use with a conveyer apparatus including carrier bars. Each carrier bar conveys pellet-shaped articles along a predetermined path. The inspection system includes at least one camera unit for sensing a predetermined characteristic of the pellet-shaped articles, a removal unit, and a controller. The removal unit, downstream from the at least one camera unit, removes selected pellet-shaped article(s) from the carrier bar(s) depending on whether the characteristic is sensed by the at least one camera unit. The controller is in communication with the at least one camera unit and the removal unit. The controller provides a signal to the removal unit in accordance with the sensed characteristic. The removal unit includes a rotatable ejection drum having extended vacuum nozzles along its length, equal to the number of articles conveyed in each carrier bar. Each vacuum nozzle selectively removes article(s) from the carrier bar(s) by suction.

An apparatus for separating metal particles from a material stream of a bulk material, comprising a detection device for detecting metal particles in the material stream and a separating device configured to separate a portion of the material stream in which the metal particles are contained, the separating device comprising a housing having a material inlet, a good-material outlet and a bad-material outlet; a rotary piston rotatably mounted in the housing and configured to guide the material stream from the material inlet to the good-material outlet or to the bad-material outlet depending on the detection result of the detection device; a drive unit configured to position the rotary piston at least in a first and a second rotary position; wherein the drive unit is configured to rotate the rotary piston between the first rotary position and the second rotary position by an angle of rotation greater than 90.

A novel consumer grade automatic sorter for pieces is disclosed with an application to organizing interlocking toy brick systems. The invention of a novel means to propel and separate pieces, and process sensor data in combination with standard methods for binning and storage. A novel mechanical screw is proposed to propel the parts. The device comprises a novel combination of backgrounds and artificial intelligence/machine learning to enable sensing of colors, estimation of size, and transparency of pieces. In addition, a method to embed a neural network efficiently on a microcontroller is disclosed.

An inspection and sorting system sorts conveyed articles. The system is provided with a conveyance device, an X-ray inspection device, and a sorting device. The conveyance device conveys inspection articles. The X-ray inspection device inspects the conveyed inspection articles. The sorting device has an air sorting mechanism that sorts the conveyed inspection articles in a sorting operation. The sorting device has a sorting information receiving component, a reference signal receiving component, and a sorting mechanism control component. The sorting information receiving component receives sorting information relating to the sorting of the inspection articles based on an inspection result of the X-ray inspection device. The reference signal receiving component receives a fixed-interval reference signal relating to the conveyance by the conveyance device. The sorting mechanism control component controls the air sorting mechanism to execute the sorting operation based on the sorting information at a timing adjusted by the reference signal.

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.

Methods and systems for sorting mixed metal scrap may first determine a sorting attribute of each article of metal scrap, and subsequently mark each article with a machine-readable or visually identifiable mark according to the sorting attribute. The articles of mixed metal scrap can be sorted along a high throughput conveyance using a series of sensors to scan the articles for the machine-readable marks, and rapidly sorting marked articles to appropriate sorting destinations based on detecting the machine-readable marks, and without requiring repeat identification by metal analyzers at the sorting step.