The video of the vacuum robot that can sort rocks will be the highlight of your day. The robot has been named Jller after the German river from where the sample rocks to be sorted were collected.
The robot employs computer vision techniques to sort the rocks by determining their geological age. Jller uses rock characteristics like texture, composition and arrangement of grains to sort it into the right category. The imaging system in the robot processes the pictures of the stones and keeps a tab on the locations of these stones on the viewing platform as it sorts out the stones. The most prominent color, composition of the color, and the lines, patterns, grain and texture of the stone are also recorded.
The data is then employed by the robot to sort the rocks into the relevant defined categories. The stones are picked up by a vacuum gripper. The vacuum gripper can rotate around its axis thus, allowing it to align the stones.
Albeit the complex design of the robot, Jller in action is much more mesmerizing than the intriguing technology powering it.