Insect singulation and classification
AssigneeVerily Life Sciences LLC
InventorsVictor Criswell, Peter Massaro
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An insect sortation system can track movement of insects along a predefined pathway. The insect sortation system includes a puff-back system for moving insects toward an inlet of the pathway and a puff-forward system for moving insects toward an outlet of the pathway. An overhead imaging system captures images of the insects at one or more locations along the pathway. Once imaged, the insect may be classified into a category (e.g., sex category, species category, size category, etc.) using a variety of different classification approaches including, for example, an industrial vision classifier and/or a machine learning classifier. Once classified, the insects can be directed to various chambers for subsequent processing.
Claims35
An insect sortation system, comprising:
- an insect pathway defining an interior volume having an inlet and an outlet, wherein an approach zone of the insect pathway is defined adjacent the inlet, a classification zone of the insect pathway is defined adjacent the outlet, and a singulation zone of the insect pathway is defined between the approach zone and the classification zone;
- a puff back region defined adjacent the inlet;
- a puff forward region defined adjacent the outlet;
- and
- an imaging system disposed adjacent the insect pathway and configured to image insects on the insect pathway.
An insect sortation method, comprising:
- receiving image data from an imaging system disposed adjacent to an insect pathway, the image data representative of one or more insects on the insect pathway;
- determining positions of one or more insects with respect to a plurality of zones of the insect pathway based on the image data;
- and
- causing movement, by a puff system, of at least one insect of the one or more insects based on a position of the at least one insect with respect to the plurality of zones.
A non-transitory computer-readable storage device comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to perform operations comprising:
- receive image data from an imaging system disposed adjacent to an insect pathway, the image data representative of one or more insects on the insect pathway;
- determine positions of one or more insects with respect to a plurality of zones of the insect pathway based on the image data;
- and
- causing movement, by a puff system, of at least one insect of the one or more insects based on a position of the at least one insect with respect to the plurality of zones.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.