Food · Optical sorting
Automating a fruit and vegetable sorting line
Illustrative project for a food-processing site seeking more consistent sorting quality, higher throughput and better repeatability.
Illustrative use case
Context
Starting point
Fruit or vegetable sorting relies heavily on human observation. Product variability, line speed and fatigue reduce consistency over time.
Problem
What needs to improve
- Consistency of visual sorting
- Ability to absorb seasonal throughput peaks
- Traceability of rejection reasons
- Reduced repetitive manual work
Possible architecture
A solution to validate with the site
- Stabilised conveying and consistent product presentation
- Cameras, lighting and sorting criteria defined with operations
- Rejection or separation system
- Counting and reporting by defect class
- Recipes by variety, size or season
Illustrative use case — architecture and results must be confirmed using real site data and representative products.
Key point
Test with representative product lots before scaling.
- Build representative sample sets
- Validate speed and lighting effects
- Define defect classes useful to operations