Machine for the inspection and sorting of fruits and inspection and sorting method used by said machine
Machine for the inspection and sorting of fruits, which has, connected to a control system, an inspection unit ( 1 ) and ejection means ( 3 ) which eject the fruits inspected by the inspection unit ( 1 ) which do not comply with certain conditions pre-established by the control system. The product transport means have a plurality of rotating rollers ( 7 ) which rotate the fruits they transport as they advance, providing multiple views of said fruits to the artificial vision system ( 4 ), and a final section for the fall of the fruits with a curved surface with variable decreasing radius. The present invention also consists of a method to inspect and sort fruits which makes them rotate during their transport and inspection and sets their acceleration at the discharge from the machine through a curved surface with decreasing radius.
1. Machine for the inspection and sorting of fruits, comprising:
an inspection unit which inspects fruits, connected to a control system, comprising an artificial vision system, which in turn comprises at least one camera,
transport means, which transport the fruits through an initial section up to the inspection unit, and extract the fruits from the inspection unit through a final section when the inspection has been carried out, and
ejection means arranged in the final section of the transport means, and connected to the control system, which eject from the machine the fruits inspected by the inspection unit which do not comply with certain conditions pre-established by said control system,
wherein the transport means comprise a conveyor belt formed by a plurality of rotating rollers which make the transported fruits rotate while the fruits advance, providing multiple views of said fruits to the artificial vision system,
wherein the final section of the transport means comprises at a end thereof a curved surface for the fall of the fruits of said transport means and exit from the machine, said curved surface having a variable decreasing radius along a section which runs from a start and at least up to a point where the transported fruits fall from the transport means.
2. The machine for the inspection and sorting of fruits according to claim 1 , wherein the transport means comprise a plurality of sections with different roller rotation speed.
3. The machine for the inspection and sorting of fruits according to claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of cleaning showers arranged along an on initial section of the transport means for the cleaning of fruits before the fruits are inspected in the inspection unit.
4. The machine for the inspection and sorting of fruits according to claim 1 , wherein
the artificial vision system comprises at least one laser emitter
and the camera captures an image of a laser profile emitted by the laser emitter and reflects the laser profile on the fruits to be inspected.
5. The machine for the inspection and sorting of fruits according to claim 1 , wherein
the laser emitter stays fixed,
and the laser profile emitted by the laser emitter and reflected on the fruits to be inspected is a line,
the image captured by the camera being an accumulation of different consecutive laser profiles emitted by the laser emitter and reflected on different parts of the fruits displaced by the transport means.
6. The machine for the inspection and sorting of fruits according to claim 4 , wherein a single camera captures images of the fruits and images of the profiles emitted by the laser emitter.
7. The machine for the inspection and sorting of fruits according to claim 1 , wherein the inspection unit comprises a plurality of pulsed lighting systems, which provide lighting with different spectrum, capturing the only camera images in different spectra.
8. The machine for the inspection and sorting of fruits according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of the lighting systems is a laser emitter.
9. The machine for the inspection and sorting of fruits according to claim 1 , wherein the ejection means comprise at least a compressed air blower which ejects the fruits according to the conditions pre-established by the control system.
10. The machine for the inspection and sorting of fruits according to claim 1 , wherein at least one blower is arranged under the transport means, carrying out the ejection of the fruits which do not comply with the pre-established conditions.
11. The machine for the inspection and sorting of fruits according to claim 9 , wherein at least one blower is located outside the transport means, wherein the ejection of the fruits according to the pre-established conditions takes place once the fruits leave the transport means through the curved surface of the final section.
12. Method for the inspection and sorting of fruits using the machine of claim 1 , comprising:
transporting the fruits endlessly to the inspection unit through transport means,
inspecting the fruits endlessly in the inspection unit through the artificial vision system of said inspection unit,
and transporting the fruits endlessly from the inspection unit to a discharge of the machine for their collection,
rotating the products during transport and inspection through rollers of the transport means, providing multiple views of said fruits to the artificial vision system of the inspection unit,
setting the discharge acceleration of the fruits to a pre-established limit through a curved surface of variable decreasing radius along a section between a start of the curved surface and at least up to a point in which the transported fruits fall from the transport means,
and endlessly ejecting the fruits inspected by the inspection unit according to certain conditions pre-established by said control system.