State of the Art Review
State of the Art Review
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Research of current existing devices designed for the sorting of LEGO parts
Design 1: Akiyuki's Vision Guided Brick Sorter
Design 1: Akiyuki's Vision Guided Brick Sorter
One of the first experimental designs the team studied was that of YouTube user Akiyuki Brick Channel that created a LEGO brick sorting device in 2011. The device starts off featuring a mechanical filtration as the first sort to restrict the sample of LEGO bricks being processed. This is designed as a pitched wall that rises to drop LEGO bricks onto a conveyor belt. The conveyor belt acts as a secondary filter. It slowly progresses to make sure only individual bricks fall onto a second conveyor belt. The second conveyor belt feeds the now individual brick into an image processing tunnel where photos of the brick taken against a bright light are compared to a library assortment of bricks. As the photo is processed it is matched up with the archetypal brick that best resembles the unit. This activates software logic coupled with the device to rotate an apparatus with 8 cups designated for different brick types as seen in the picture above. Whichever unit has been matched with the archetypal LEGO brick cup is then pushed down a ramp to fall into the sorting cup. The machine seems to work very well but unfortunately does have some flaws. The initial sort is very inconsistent with how many LEGO pieces are culled from the hopper and may lead to the first conveyor belt to be over encumbered. The first conveyor belt also fails to deal with the possibility of two pieces lying on top of each other from the abrupt initial sort, though this problem does go away as they are dropped onto the second conveyor belt. The recognition and distribution of bricks into sorting cups is done extremely well and the high detail sorting possibilities are a significant factor to consider with this build. The sorting itself is slow in feeding each LEGO across the belts, but maintains a high recognition accuracy.
One of the first experimental designs the team studied was that of YouTube user Akiyuki Brick Channel that created a LEGO brick sorting device in 2011. The device starts off featuring a mechanical filtration as the first sort to restrict the sample of LEGO bricks being processed. This is designed as a pitched wall that rises to drop LEGO bricks onto a conveyor belt. The conveyor belt acts as a secondary filter. It slowly progresses to make sure only individual bricks fall onto a second conveyor belt. The second conveyor belt feeds the now individual brick into an image processing tunnel where photos of the brick taken against a bright light are compared to a library assortment of bricks. As the photo is processed it is matched up with the archetypal brick that best resembles the unit. This activates software logic coupled with the device to rotate an apparatus with 8 cups designated for different brick types as seen in the picture above. Whichever unit has been matched with the archetypal LEGO brick cup is then pushed down a ramp to fall into the sorting cup. The machine seems to work very well but unfortunately does have some flaws. The initial sort is very inconsistent with how many LEGO pieces are culled from the hopper and may lead to the first conveyor belt to be over encumbered. The first conveyor belt also fails to deal with the possibility of two pieces lying on top of each other from the abrupt initial sort, though this problem does go away as they are dropped onto the second conveyor belt. The recognition and distribution of bricks into sorting cups is done extremely well and the high detail sorting possibilities are a significant factor to consider with this build. The sorting itself is slow in feeding each LEGO across the belts, but maintains a high recognition accuracy.
Design 2: Jacques Mattheij's LEGO Sorting Machine
Design 2: Jacques Mattheij's LEGO Sorting Machine
Another experimental device the team studied for the sorting machine was that of Jacques Mattheij, known on YouTube as ModularShop from his 2017 videos. This device somewhat expands on the previous device but holds true to the basic functions expressed in the design and the previous design. The initial sort features a slow progressing conveyor belt with a harsh drop. The drop successfully isolates individual LEGO bricks to be processed by another conveyor belt that feeds into the imaging tunnel. The same conveyor belt moves the bricks across a pneumatic device that uses compressed air to shoot the bricks off into a container. One of the biggest advantages of this build is that the whole process is done incredibly efficiently and the sorting has no stop and go moments. It is all one fluid motion. The specialization of sorting is a major disadvantage as it seems that there are only 2 or 3 archetypes of LEGO blocks that are being sorted, the rest go into another general bin. This build is structurally constructed mostly from wood which provides extreme stability but adds a lot of weight to the design. The build also has significantly more hopper space to deal with larger piles of LEGO bricks.
Another experimental device the team studied for the sorting machine was that of Jacques Mattheij, known on YouTube as ModularShop from his 2017 videos. This device somewhat expands on the previous device but holds true to the basic functions expressed in the design and the previous design. The initial sort features a slow progressing conveyor belt with a harsh drop. The drop successfully isolates individual LEGO bricks to be processed by another conveyor belt that feeds into the imaging tunnel. The same conveyor belt moves the bricks across a pneumatic device that uses compressed air to shoot the bricks off into a container. One of the biggest advantages of this build is that the whole process is done incredibly efficiently and the sorting has no stop and go moments. It is all one fluid motion. The specialization of sorting is a major disadvantage as it seems that there are only 2 or 3 archetypes of LEGO blocks that are being sorted, the rest go into another general bin. This build is structurally constructed mostly from wood which provides extreme stability but adds a lot of weight to the design. The build also has significantly more hopper space to deal with larger piles of LEGO bricks.
Design 3: Daniel West's Universal LEGO Sorting Machine
Design 3: Daniel West's Universal LEGO Sorting Machine
The last experimental design that the team studied was another one created by a YouTuber known as Daniel West. This design is an expansion of the previous two designs and seeks to resolve issues that the two experienced. For the team, this design is the one that they drew the most inspiration from for the device. This design is the most robust out of the 3 designs the team looked at even though the basic concepts of the machine are similar if not the exact same. The device starts off with an initial sort that isolates jumbled piles of LEGO bricks into a V-shaped pitched platform. This platform uses servo motors to shake the pieces into individual units without overlap. The vibration platform creates a deceptively consistent flow of parts into a video scanning tunnel. The video or flow of images is processed using a raspberry pi computer that sends the file to a third-party computer for processing. Once the outside computer has discerned what LEGO brick is being highlighted, that information is sent back to the raspberry pi. A series of gates and doors couples with conveyor belts then move the LEGO brick to its sorting pod. This device has a very high ceiling of specialization as it can sort LEGO bricks into 18 unique categories. The flaws mentioned of previous designs are either extremely mitigated in this design or even been culled entirely. The machine is quick, efficient, and the software shows high competency with machine learning and imaging software. One of the biggest flaws with this design is that it is most likely too large for the project’s stakeholders to use comfortably in the spaces the group has planned for them. The approximate dimensions of the device is about 4-feet tall and 3-feet long.
The last experimental design that the team studied was another one created by a YouTuber known as Daniel West. This design is an expansion of the previous two designs and seeks to resolve issues that the two experienced. For the team, this design is the one that they drew the most inspiration from for the device. This design is the most robust out of the 3 designs the team looked at even though the basic concepts of the machine are similar if not the exact same. The device starts off with an initial sort that isolates jumbled piles of LEGO bricks into a V-shaped pitched platform. This platform uses servo motors to shake the pieces into individual units without overlap. The vibration platform creates a deceptively consistent flow of parts into a video scanning tunnel. The video or flow of images is processed using a raspberry pi computer that sends the file to a third-party computer for processing. Once the outside computer has discerned what LEGO brick is being highlighted, that information is sent back to the raspberry pi. A series of gates and doors couples with conveyor belts then move the LEGO brick to its sorting pod. This device has a very high ceiling of specialization as it can sort LEGO bricks into 18 unique categories. The flaws mentioned of previous designs are either extremely mitigated in this design or even been culled entirely. The machine is quick, efficient, and the software shows high competency with machine learning and imaging software. One of the biggest flaws with this design is that it is most likely too large for the project’s stakeholders to use comfortably in the spaces the group has planned for them. The approximate dimensions of the device is about 4-feet tall and 3-feet long.
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