A carryback material collection system is provided for assessing carryback material received from a conveyor belt. The carryback material collection system includes a tray positionable below the conveyor belt for receiving carryback material from the conveyor belt. The carryback material collection system further includes at least one sensor for detecting carryback material received in the tray. The carryback material collection system further includes a processing unit communicatively coupled with the at least one sensor for conveying information indicative of the carryback material detected by the at least one sensor. The carryback material collection system further includes a tray actuator that is operatively coupled to the tray to move the tray between a collection orientation to receive carryback material from the conveyor belt and a discharge orientation to discharge the carryback material from the tray.

A road barrier transfer machine includes an improved capstan control system that reduces unwanted migration of road barrier spans without requiring inaccurate visual observations and reliance on outdated scripts. The barrier transfer machine includes a moveable chassis, an entry snout, an exit snout, a conveyor system, a capstan system, and the capstan control system. The capstan control system automatically operates the capstan system or provides instructions to an operator of the machine to maintain the tension and compression of a road barrier span within desired ranges to reduce unwanted migration of the span.

A shield gate includes a door member disposed in a gap region located between an intra-area transport unit and an extra-area transport unit in a transport direction in a closed state in which the shield gate shields an opening, and is disposed at a position displaced from the gap region in an open state in which the shield gate opens the opening. A second interval is a length of the gap region that allows the door member to be disposed, during at least a part of a non-transport period, the length of the gap region is set to be greater than or equal to the second interval, and the shield gate is in the closed state, and, during the transport period, the shield gate is in the open state, and the length of the gap region is set to a first interval that is shorter than the second interval.

Provided are a sorting vehicle, a goods sorting system and a goods sorting method. The sorting vehicle includes a vehicle body, a belt-type conveying mechanism, an enclosing mechanism and a processor. The belt-type conveying mechanism includes a roller-type drive mechanism disposed on the vehicle body and an endless conveyor belt disposed on a roller of the roller-type drive mechanism. The moving direction of the endless conveyor belt is perpendicular to the traveling direction of the vehicle body. The enclosing mechanism is partially or entirely disposed on the endless conveyor belt, and is configured to form at least one enclosing region above the vehicle body. The processor is configured to control the roller-type drive mechanism to drive the endless conveyor belt to move a preset distance to complete unloading of the goods within the enclosing region; and control the roller-type drive mechanism to complete resetting of the enclosing region.

A method for automatically handling a plurality of product containers includes the steps of: providing a container exchange apparatus having at least one platform for temporarily hosting containers to be transferred; moving the at least one platform along a conveyor device and a shelving unit; and driving shifting means for exchanging containers from the conveyor device to the shelving unit, and vice-versa, via the at least one platform.

A pallet inspection system includes a conveyor to move a pallet that is to be inspected. The pallet includes a top deck and a bottom deck separated by spaced apart support blocks positioned therebetween, with nails being used to secure the top and bottom decks to the support blocks. Cameras are positioned to generate images of the pallet as the pallet is moved on the conveyor. A processor is coupled to the cameras and receives the images for processing. The processing includes executing a first algorithm on the images to tag the images having support blocks visible therein, and executing a second algorithm on the tagged images to detect nails having exposed tips.

A waste stream is analyzed and sorted to segregate different items for recycling. Certain features of the technology improve the accuracy with which waste stream items are diverted to collection repositories. Other features concern adaptation of neural networks in accordance with context information sensed from the waste. Still other features serve to automate and simplify maintenance of machine vision systems used in waste sorting. Yet other aspects of the technology concern marking 2D machine readable code data on items having complex surfaces (e.g., food containers with integral ribbing for structural strength or juice pooling), to mitigate issues that such surfaces can introduce in code reading. Still other aspects of the technology concern prioritizing certain blocks of conveyor belt imagery for analysis. Yet other aspects of the technology concern joint use of near infrared spectroscopy, artificial intelligence, digital watermarking, and/or other techniques, for waste sorting. A variety of further features and arrangements are also detailed.

Actuating an air conveyor device is disclosed, including: causing an airflow to be generated by an airflow generator of an air conveyor device, wherein the airflow generator is configured to cause the airflow to enter an intake port of the air conveyor device and exit from an outlet port of the air conveyor device in response to receiving air at an air input port of the air conveyor device; causing a target object to be captured by the air conveyor device using the airflow; activating a positioning actuator mechanism to position the air conveyor device; and causing the target object to be ejected from the air conveyor device.

Devices, systems, and methods for autonomously packing folded laundry articles into a container are described. A packing system includes a refillable cartridge, a queue conveyor having one or more folded laundry articles and stacks of folded laundry articles disposed thereon, at least one retractable conveyor loading end between the refillable cartridge and the queue conveyor for loading the folded laundry articles into the refillable cartridge, a driven lifter for selectively raising and lowering the into and out of the container, and a controller in operative configuration with processors and drives of all of the foregoing and one or more sensors detecting a fill height of the refillable cartridge. The refillable cartridge includes a removable receiving surface that moves from a closed position to an open position during loading of the folded laundry by the retractable conveyor and unloading of the folded laundry into the container.

A system for taking out items wrapped in a packaging film and accommodated in a packaging box with an open top. The system includes a first conveyor configured to transfer a packaging box accommodating items therein, a fixing device for fixing, at a withdrawal position where the items are taken out of the packaging box, the packaging box transferred by the first conveyor with its top open, a withdrawal device for moving to a space in which the items are accommodated in the packaging box so as to suck the same using vacuum suction and take out the same, an item transfer device for transferring the items taken out by the withdrawal device with the items placed on the item transfer device, and a box transfer device for transferring an empty packaging box from which the items are taken out.