Granted Patent B2

US 12,290,842 · App. 18/264,752 · Granted May 6, 2025

Inventors: Nalin Kumar (Fort Wayne, IN); Manuel Gerardo Garcia, Jr. (Austin, TX); Isha Kamleshbhai Maun (Arlington, TX); Jeffrey A. Lacey (Ammon, ID); Lorenzo Vega Montoto (Idaho Falls, ID)

Assignees: Sortera Technologies, Inc.; Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC

B07C5/3422B07C5/34B07C5/342B07C5/04B07C2501/0054

Abstract

Claims (25)

1. A system for handling a mixture of materials, the system comprising:

a medium wavelength infrared (“MWIR”) camera configured to produce MWIR image data of the mixture of materials; and

a data processing system comprising a machine learning system configured with a knowledge base to classify certain ones of the mixture of materials as containing dark colored plastic pieces by processing the MWIR image data of the mixture of materials through the machine learning system, wherein the knowledge base contains a previously generated library of parameters trained to recognize dark colored plastic pieces.

2. The system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the dark colored plastic pieces are black-colored plastic pieces.

3. The system as recited in claim 2 , further comprising:

a conveyor system configured to convey the mixture of materials past the MWIR camera; and

a sorting apparatus configured to sort the classified certain ones of the mixture of materials from the mixture of materials as a function of the classifying of certain ones of the mixture of materials.

4. The system as recited in claim 2 , wherein the previously generated library of parameters was trained with MWIR images captured from a homogenous set of samples of black-colored plastic pieces as they were conveyed past a MWIR camera.

5. The system as recited in claim 2 , wherein the MWIR image data is produced as a result of MWIR spectroscopy imaging of the mixture of materials.

6. The system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the previously generated library of parameters was trained with MWIR images captured from a homogenous set of samples of dark colored plastic pieces as they were conveyed past a MWIR camera.

7. The system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the machine learning system comprises an artificial intelligence neural network, and wherein the parameters are neural network parameters.

8. The system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the dark colored plastic pieces cannot be identified using NIR spectroscopy.

9. A method for handling a mixture of materials comprising dark colored plastic pieces, the method comprising:

producing MWIR image data of the mixture of materials;

processing the MWIR image data through a machine learning system configured with a knowledge base containing a previously generated library of MWIR spectroscopy characteristics pertaining to dark colored plastic pieces; and

assigning with the machine learning system a classification to certain ones of the mixture of materials as containing dark colored plastic pieces as a function of the processing of the MWIR image data of the mixture of materials.

10. The method as recited in claim 9 , further comprising:

conveying the mixture of materials past a MWIR camera configured to produce the MWIR image data; and

sorting the certain ones of the mixture of materials from the mixture as a function of the classification.

11. The method as recited in claim 10 , wherein the dark colored plastic pieces are black-colored plastic pieces.

12. The method as recited in claim 11 , wherein the previously generated library of MWIR spectroscopy characteristics was captured by a MWIR camera configured to capture MWIR images of a homogenous set of samples of material pieces containing black-colored plastic pieces as they were conveyed past the MWIR camera.

13. The method as recited in claim 12 , wherein the machine learning system comprises an artificial intelligence neural network, and wherein the parameters are neural network parameters.

14. The method as recited in claim 11 , wherein the MWIR image data is produced as a result of MWIR spectroscopy imaging of the mixture of materials.

15. The method as recited in claim 11 , wherein the black-colored plastic pieces cannot be identified using NIR spectroscopy.

16. The method as recited in claim 9 , wherein the previously generated library of MWIR spectroscopy characteristics was captured by a MWIR camera configured to capture MWIR images of a homogenous set of samples of material pieces containing dark colored plastic pieces as they were conveyed past the MWIR camera.

Assignments (3)

Continuity (16)

References Cited (306)