LEGO Mindstorms NXT Vision Guided Brick Sorter ver1
Why Bricks Stack Exchange recommends it
Bricks Stack Exchange answerers point people to it as the standard example of an automated, vision-guided LEGO sorter whenever questions come up about sorting, inventorying or identifying parts.
Recommended by 1 people across 1 different months, 2011 to 2015.
What it is
A demo of a brick sorting machine built from LEGO Mindstorms NXT, a camera and a scale, made by Akiyuki. It identifies each loose LEGO part by shape and weight and sorts it automatically, with the build shown running on a conveyor belt.
What people said
Recommends Josh · 2013-05 · Bricks Stack Exchange · on “How to make a conveyor belt with LEGO parts?”
Dropping stones onto your LEGO doesn't sound like a kind way to treat your expensive Technic parts; I imagine that small bits of stone and dirt will fall through a belt of Technic Chain Link or Technic Chain Tread , what with them being a chain rather than a belt. This will then lead to other bits of your contraption becoming polluted with abrasive gunk. Akiyuki also built a brick sorter with a simultaneously tedious and exhilarating video of a machine sorting arbitrary LEGO parts [this video] ; Photos and an extended discussion in Japanese at レゴのレゴ選別マシン その1 [LINK] ). The conveyor belt perplexed me as I didn't know what it was made of. I thought it might be some kind of fabric or custom-manufactu
Cites Pubby · 2011-11 · Bricks Stack Exchange · on “Has anyone automated the LEGO hand sorting process beyond "pawing & piling"?”
Here's a video I found, featuring a fully automated LEGO sorter made out of LEGO itself: [this video] Keep in mind that the time it takes you to build and use one of these is probably greater than the amount of time it takes to sort by hand. EDIT: I don't think slots would work great as the bricks could fit into multiple shapes/sizes of holes. One thing you could try is a "panning for gold" method - put pieces in a bowl and swirl them around. The heavier ones should fall out. Don't know how well it would work, but it is worth a shot.
Cites Ambo100 · 2013-01 · Bricks Stack Exchange · on “Useful machines built with LEGO”
There are two brilliant brick sorters built by akiyuky, one for standard bricks [this video] , and another for Technic axles [LINK] .
Cites pcantin · 2015-03 · Bricks Stack Exchange · on “Quick way to inventory parts”
As you have probably guessed by now, there is no easy solution to your question. It all comes down to computer vision. In this solution [LINK] , Akiyuki built a massive machine out of LEGO bricks, a camera, a scale, 2 Mindstorm NXT and, which he fails to mention in is parts list, a computer and some electronics. Computer vision is complex, and making a working prototype is still an impressive task. Even though the software component of this project is most probably the reuse of an existing solution like OpenCV [LINK] , there are many other problems to overcome. For example; Mechanically bringing the parts to the camera one by one in a controlled fashion. Also if the part is not laying down f
Cites Ambo100 · 2015-06 · Bricks Stack Exchange · on “How can I extract part id or design id from a photo?”
As far as I'm aware, there isn't such a service. Akiyuki designed a LEGO part sorter [this video] that sorts bricks by identifying the shape and weight of the brick. If you can get an accurate reading of a pieces weight in milligrams that should help you get a more accurate identification.