Low cost object sorting robotic arm using Raspberry Pi

Abstract

Usually sorting of objects is carried out manually using human labor. Recognizing a particular object and placing it in the required position is a tiring work especially in the field of industry where in one has to sort a bulk of objects in quick time and also the weight is greater than what a human can carry. This is when automation plays a major role. In this paper we are considering all these factors along with the cost to make the process more efficient. We use Raspberry Pi, which is an open source Linux based board. Raspberry Pi has found its way in major in number of useful & versatile applications in robotic systems. But never the less this system is new & hence Latest Technology takes time to be uncovered. Therefore, not much articles are available, hence our goal will be to investigate its applicative and cost effective use as a robotic arm in Object Sorting. Thereby Revolutionizing Robotic Systems in Industrial manufacturing plants by making them cheaper, compact & along with the same reliability as that of a dedicated PC. Furthermore we make use of a camera module which captures the image of the object. This image is processed using GNU Octave to determine the color and the shape of the object. GNU Octave is an open source language similar to MATLAB and hence making it portable. All the processed information in Octave is than relayed to a microcontroller which in turn controls the movement of the robotic arm which will segregate the objects into its respective compartments. Here we sort objects of three different shapes and colors, i.e. Square, Circle and Triangle (As seen from the Top-View of a Cube, Sphere/Cylinder and Triangular-Prism aligned vertically) and RGB colors i.e. Red, Blue and Green respectively.