Automating Object Sorting by Color with a Robotic Arm and Conveyor Belt System

This paper focuses on two main aspects in industrial production: material handling and material sorting. The aim was to design and fabricate a mechatronic device that is able to sort different objects in a specific order based on their appearance. First, a conveyor belt does the material handling. The control unit will get specific sensor values for different colored objects. The robotic arm will then pick and place the object in a certain angular position and sort them out. Nowadays, robotic arms are very common in almost all kinds of industries. But most of the arms can only perform some predetermined kinematic action. In this work, the robotic arm will be able to make its decision based upon the color of the object and place them in different final positions. This technology can be used in a variety of sectors, such as food processing, waste handling, raw material handling, object sorting, packaging, etc. This can greatly minimize human efforts, manufacture time, and hence the production cost.