To keep up with the community of LEGO® sorting machine makers, I want to continue showcasing recently published work. Today’s highlight is lego.sorting.machine. It was built in public on Instagram since August 2023 and very recently completed its end-to-end sorting milestone.
First Impressions
What first comes to mind when looking at this machine is its super clean design, utilizing almost purely white parts. It is built from a mixture of standard LEGO® parts and many custom 3D printed LEGO® compatible components. Its overall size fits nicely on a table-top. The usage is primarily targeted towards efficiently sorting smaller LEGO® parts.
The overall setup follows the classic 4-stage design common to many sorters:
- Bulk Storage - Holding the unsorted bulk
- Part Separation / Unification - Isolating individual bricks
- Scanner - Camera-based part identification
- Sorted Storage - Directing parts to the respective bins
However, that’s where the standard design ends, as the rest of the machine is packed with innovative features.
Unique V-Channel Monitoring
One particularly unique aspect is the use of a second camera for fill state monitoring of the vibration feeders. Both the bulk storage belt and the v-channels themselves can be adaptively controlled based on the fill state of the downstream stage. Since bricks often behave chaotically in the feeder, this is a clever automation step to ensure a steady, well-separated stream of parts. This is key for an efficient machine running at high parts per minute.
Innovative Scanner Design
The scanner stage also incorporates unique elements:
- Transparent Belt - The machine uses a transparent conveyor belt. This is a very unique choice, which enables the scanning of the underside of LEGO® parts.
- Mirror - Complementing the transparent belt, a mirror is positioned within the scanner. This can allow the overall system to capture top, front and bottom perspectives to disambiguate part classification.
Rotating Slide
The final sorting stage features a modern rotating slide mechanism:
- Yaw and Pitch Control - The slide shows both yaw (rotation) and pitch (angling) capabilities. This allows it to access two levels of sorting bins, pushing the sortable class count to 16 while keeping a compact footprint.
- User-Friendly Storage - The sorting chute leads to stacked boxes. This design offers great usability, as the boxes can be easily removed, emptied and replaced without disrupting the machine’s operation.
A custom, stackable sorting tray for efficient part unloading
Overall, the lego.sorting.machine presents a highly refined and innovative take on LEGO® sorting, introducing several novel ideas. Congratulations for reaching this big milestone, and I hope you will continue building!
