Workpiece sorting system and method

A workpiece sorting system comprising:

• a conveyor configured to randomly convey various types of workpieces having different weights;
• a conveying position detection part configured to detect a conveying position of each of the workpieces conveyed by the conveyor;
• a camera configured to photograph the workpieces conveyed by the conveyor;
• a plurality of robots disposed along a conveying direction of the conveyor, each of the robots being provided with a hand capable of ejecting the workpieces on the conveyor and a weight measurement part configured to measure a weight of each of the workpieces ejected by the hand;
• a controller configured to control each of the robots;
• and
• a large group classifying part configured to classify the workpieces into two or more large groups based on a contour feature of an image of the workpieces captured by the camera, the large groups being allocated to the robots,
• wherein the controller includes
• a visual tracking part configured to cause each of the robots to handle the workpieces, while causing each of the robots to follow an operation of the conveyor, based on the image of the workpieces captured by the camera and the conveying position of each of the workpieces detected by the conveying position detection part,
• a hand controller configured to control the hand using the visual tracking part so as to eject the workpieces classified into the large groups allocated to the robots from the conveyer, and
• a workpiece sorting part configured to sort the workpieces based on the weight measured by the weight measurement part for each of small groups respectively included in the large groups.