Air Jet Sorting

Introduction

This project began two years ago in 2014 with a sponsorship from Resonon and MBRCT. The project consisted of a hyper spectral camera and a PC to process images of almonds and have a robotic arm physically remove almonds characterized as "bad". During the year of 2014 a senior design team of four moved the processing to Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA). It became quite clear that this sped up the processing, and therefore, the removal processes. 

After proof of concept from 2014 the project expanded during 2015 to include a monochrome line scan camera which was connected to the FPGA using Camera Link, and a hyper spectral sensor which was connected directly to the FPGA. A team of two from the senior design class of 2015-2016 created an object detection algorithm which would detect a falling object (Almond) and find it's center of mass while it was in free-fall. 

In 2016, the Montana Research and Economic Development Initiative sponsorship has led to the possibility of bringing this project to market as a feasible alternative for local farmers to sort their own crops. The goal for this project is to eventually have a final product in which lentils can be sorted from a fall stream with the use of air jets. 

During the 2016-17 academic year, Sam Kysar, Phillip Lowther, and Molly Tomlinson will be conducting research, designing, and constructing the air jet sorting system. This will be attached to a cart which will then have the monochrome line scan camera, hyper spectral sensor, and the vibratory feeder/hopper attached as well. The overall goal of this project is to be able to remove a single, selected lentil, from a fall stream coming from the end of the vibratory feeder chute. 

Motivation

The motivation of this project stems from the fact that Resonon will be able to use this research and project in the future as a possible product or complete hyper spectral sorting solution. Resonon has been backing this project since the beginning and is excited to see the project finally come full swing and have a finished product at the end. 

Sponsor Information

Dr. Ross Snider | College of Engineering

Associate Professor | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering 

Resonon, Inc. | Hyperspectral Imaging Solutions

Resonon provides complete hyperspectral imaging systems for outdoor, industrial, airborne, and laboratory applications.

M-REDI | Montana Research & Economic Development Initiative

M-REDI has helped grow the Montana economy and has made great efforts to make it more diverse.