International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering

Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 5, Issue 2, February 2015)

Automation of Object Sorting Using an Industrial Roboarm

and MATLAB Based Image Processing
Prof. D. B. Rane1, Gunjal Sagar S.2, Nikam Devendra V.3, Shaikh Jameer U.4
Department of Electronic Engineering, P.R.E.C. Loni, Savitribai Phule Pune University, India
The field of robotics is growing with a faster rate in
recent years and many advanced technologies are coming
up with their own advancements. Robots due to its ease of
operation used in domestic, industrial and military purposes
thus the horizons of this field are increasing day by day.
The roboarm used in this project work is used to sort the
objects moving on conveyor belt depending upon its colour
properties into the predetermined categories.
This robotic arm is controlled by the controller used i.e.
ARM 7 which is a 32 bit microcontroller having RISC
architecture. This controller is programmed to move the dc
and servo motors used in roboarm. The roboarm is
manufactured using aluminium brackets which are durable
and lightweight. The gripper is used to hold object which is
fitted at the tip of the roboarm.
The software development is the vital task in the
proposed project development. The software is entirely
coded in MATLAB to check the colour of the object used
for sorting purpose. The work in the paper is considered to
sort objects such as apple depending on its attributes such
as colour. Thus by using fully automated system the time
required for the sorting process is reduced to the great
extent, so proposed system is fast, accurate, economical,
robust and cost efficient.

Abstract In recent years the importance of process

automation has been increased as the growth of any industry
is directly depends on it. For precise output and accuracy of
industrial process robots with sophisticated sensors are used.
In modern era application of image processing in many
industrial processes has proven its prevalence and dominance.
This paper present color based object sorting system which
uses the machine vision and the operations in image
processing. The proposed work is to develop compact, easy
and accurate objects sorting machine using real time color
image processing method to continuously evaluate and inspect
the color deformity using camera based machine vision. After
the evaluation of quality the object is sorted into predefined
quality groups with the help of pick and place roboarm. If the
inspected object fails to follow quality norms it is rejected out
by the system. The proposed system will have broad areas of
applications in many fields where continuously evaluation of
the quality is required.
KeywordsRoboarm, image processing, machine vision,
webcam, MATLAB, servo motor.

I. INTRODUCTION
Colour based sorting is extensively used in many
industries for sorting purposes to ensure the quality of the
object is up to the mark e.g. Food processing industries,
pharmaceutical
industries,
automotive
industries,
agriculture industries. Such sorting reduces the human
effort, labour cost and also time of operation. Most of
errors caused by humans due to their limited potential are
eliminated due to use of automated system supported by
colour based sorting using image processing.

Objectives of the project:

1. To sort objects depending upon the colour.
2. To provide automation to the process using robotic
arm.
3. To analyse the quality of the object.
4. To design easy and simplified operational system.
5. To count and display count of the object.

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International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering

Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 5, Issue 2, February 2015)
Two types of power supply are required to drive this
system. One is used to drive ARM processor and other is
used for driving DC motor.
ARM7 processor kit is interfaced with PC using RS232
cable. Two pair of IR sensor are used to detect of object at
two different position on the conveyor belt. Roboarm is
most and foremost requirement of the system. Here we are
using 4 axis roboarm. It moves up-down and right-left.
Roboarm is constructed using five servomotors. Out of
these five servomotors one is used at base, two at middle
and two at the arm of the roboarm. Camera is placed at
exactly centre of the conveyor belt.

II. BLOCK DIAGRAM

LCD
Camera
Driver

Servo
Motor

PC with
MATLAB
Conveyor Belt
RS232

ARM 7
Driver
Pulley

III. FLOW CHART AND WORKING

Idler
Pulley

B. Object Placement:
It is first part of the system in that all objects which we
have to be sort are placed on the conveyor belt. We have
taken object as fruit in that an apple. Hence we have to
place different size, shape and colour apples on the
conveyor belt. Object placement should be done as one
apple get sorted after that another apple is placed on the
conveyor belt. After placing an apple on the conveyor belt
then start conveyor belt for further processing.

IR sensor
Rectifier Unit
Power
Supply

Central Power
Supply Unit

C. Capture Image:
When an apple placed on conveyor belt is cuts first IR
sensor pair. Then conveyor belt is stop moving and takes
stable position. The camera used in this case will be
overhead and it will take the snapshot of the object for
Colour sensing purpose. With the help of camera real time
image of an apple is taken. This image should be good
quality and which is send to PC with MATLAB software.

Fig. Block Diagram at control room.

Block Diagram Description:

ARM processor is the heart of the entire system and used
for data analysis and storage. It will capture the all the
answers feed by users and will do the comparison with
standard answers enter by system operator. There various
modules are connected to the system are camera, two pair
of IR sensor, two DC motor, five servomotor, conveyor
belt, display module, power supply module. Camera is
input sensor which is connected to PC using USB cable.
Camera is used to capture real time image of object. There
is PC with MATLAB software is connected to ARM
processor by using RS232 cable. LCD display is connected
to ARM to display object count and message like object is
rejected or object is ok. Driver IC is driving servomotor.
There are two DC motors which are used to drive conveyor
belt. The conveyor motor receives power and signal from
the central supply through rectifier and control circuit. The
control circuit consisting of a potentiometer will allow the
user to manually control the speed of conveyor belt by the
regulatory knob. Polyester is used as a belt material. A
conveyor belt consists of two or more pulleys, with a
continuous loop of material the conveyor belt that rotates
about them. Out of these two DC motors one is used as
driver pulley and other is used as idler pulley.

D. Image Processing:
Important terms related to image processing
Pixel: Pixel is the building blocks of an image. In other
words, a pixel is the smallest possible image that can be
detected on your screen.
Binary Image: An image that consists of mainly black and
white pixels.
Grey scale Image: It contains intensity values ranging from
a minimum (absolute black) to a maximum (absolute
white) and in between varying shades of grey. Typically,
this range is between 0 and 255.
Colour Image: An image is composed of the three primary
colours, Red, Green and Blue. Hence is called as RGB
image.

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International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering

Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 5, Issue 2, February 2015)
RGB value: All colours which we see around us can be
made by adding red, blue and green components in varying
proportions. Hence, any colour of the world can uniquely
be described by its RGB value.

Which stands for Red, Blue and Green values. This

triple colour has each value ranging from 0 to 255, with 0
obviously meaning no component of that particular colour
and 255 meaning full component. For example, pure red
colour has RGB value [255 0 0], pure white has [255 255
255], pure black has [0 0 0] and has RGB value [55 162
170].
Representation of an Image in MATLAB: An image in
MATLAB is stored as a 2D matrix (of size m x n). Where
each element of the matrix represents the intensity of
light/colour of that particular pixel. Hence, for a binary
image, the value of each element of the matrix is either 0 or
1 and for a grey scale image each value lies between 0 and
255. A colour image is stored as an m x n x 3 matrix where
each element is the RGB value of that particular pixel. You
can consider it as three 2D matrices for red, green and blue
intensities. In this total processing we are finding the fruit
is good quality or not.

A. Flowchart:
START
Initialize DC motors, Servo motors, IR sensor, Camera,
LCD.
Start conveyer belt

No

Is IR
cut?

E. Roboarm:
It is basically 4 axis roboarm. This is used to send an
apple to different position. If apple is good quality then
fruits are get down at trolley at the end of the conveyor
belt. If apple is bad quality then second IR sensor pair is get
activated. When an apple cuts second IR pair then
conveyor belt gets stop and roboarm is get activated. Then
it keeps an apple at its desired location which we have set.
It is a type of mechanical arm, usually programmable, with
similar function to a human arm. The arm may be the sum
total of the mechanism or may be part of a more complex
robot. The links of such a manipulator are connected by
joints allowing either rotational motion or translational
displacement. There are five servomotors are used for
roboarm.

Yes

Stop conveyer belt

Capture real time image of object
Verify object using Image processing

No

Is object
OK?
Yes

Active second IR pair

Run conveyer belt
When second IR cut then stop conveyer
Activate ROBOARM pick rejected object by ROBOARM
And placed at desired location
Run conveyer belt
Fig. A four axis roboarm.

Put OK object at trolley

STOP

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International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering

Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 5, Issue 2, February 2015)
F. Servomotors:
Servomotors are nothing but DC motors. Servomotors
have built in gearing system and feedback loop control
circuitry. These motors do not require any type of driver
circuitry. When the shaft of the motor is at the desired
position, power supplied to the motor is stopped. If not, the
motor is turned in the appropriate direction. The desired
position is sent via electrical pulses through the signal wire.
The motor's speed is proportional to the difference between
its actual position and desired position. So if the motor is
near the desired position, it will turn slowly, otherwise it
will turn fast. This is called proportional control. This
means motor will only run as hard as necessary to
accomplish the task at hand Servomotors have rotary
actuators that allow precise angular position. There are five
servomotors used for roboarm.

1. Industry: Object sorting roboarm can be used in food

processing industries to sort the fruits depending upon
their colour, dimensions and weight.
2. Medical: Robotic arms are used in telesurgery and
also helpful in precision surgeries.
3. Hazardous environments: roboarm can be used in
environments such as coal mines, radiation places
which is either hazardous or dangerous to access.
4. Defence: Roboarm can be used to defuse the bombs.
5. Roboarm can be used in space exploration programs.
VI. FUTURE SCOPE
The proposed system will be a demo version, so for a
large scale production the number of robotic arms, cameras
and length of conveyor system can be modified. Advance
design of robotic arm can be further used to pick large and
heavy objects and sort them effectively. Generally image
capture is a big challenge as there is a chance of high
uncertainty due to the external lighting conditions. Same
way while collecting object from conveyor system by a
roboarm there is variation in the weight and size of a object
so further design can be modified so fruits can be collected
stably. Speed and efficiency of a system can be further
improved by using ARM9 or ARM11 processor for the
same purpose. Automatic Trolley system can be designed
to guide the sorted objects to their desired locations.
VII. CONCLUSION
The sorting machine sorts the objects depending upon
the colours of the objects successfully with the help of the
roboarm and MATLAB program in image processing. The
USB webcam serves as an eye of the system which
captures the real time image of the objects. The roboarm
picks the faulty quality object and places it at predefined
place, while good quality object continues its motion on
conveyor belt and finally drops into object carrier system.
The LCD displays the object count with the status about the
quality of the object. The servomotors used in the roboarm
plays the vital role as control movement of the roboarm
wholly depends control signal given to servo motor. Hence
to operate the system accurately the synchronization
between IR sensors, dc motors of the conveyor belt and
roboarm is very essential.

Fig. Servomotor

IV. ADVANTAGES
1. High efficiency
2. High speed of operation.
3. High precision: margin of error can be reduced to great
extent.
4. High degree of intelligence.
5. Low failure rate with long life.
6. Reliable operation and maintenance.
7. Fully automatic operation.
V. APPLICATIONS
The robots find numerous applications in industrial,
domestic, medical, pharmaceutical, and hazardous
environment where there are threats to human life. Some
major applications given as follow:

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Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 5, Issue 2, February 2015)
T. Gevers, A. Smeulders, Color based object recognition, in Proc.
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488-490, Fifth Reprint 2000.
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[8] www.pdfgeni.com/www.indiamart.com/sorting machine
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