Robotic control system for a needle sorting and feeding apparatus

A control system for a needle infeed device for automatically transferring needles randomly positioned on a conveyor means to a precision engagement device at a further processing location, said needle infeed device comprising one or more robots each having a gripper means for picking and placing said needles, said control system comprising:

• (a) control means for pausing said conveyor means to create a dwell cycle for said infeed device;
• (b) at least one vision tracking means for each infeed device, each vision tracking means in communication with said control means for creating an image of said needles during each dwell cycle at one or more predetermined locations on said conveyor means and for calculating positional and orientation data for each needle from the image obtained at said predetermined location during said dwell cycle;
• (c) memory means for temporarily storing said positional and orientation data received from said vision tracking means;
• and
• (d) robot control means for accessing said stored positional and orientation data to select one of said imaged needles, the positional and orientation data stored in said memory means, and enabling said one of said robots to pick up one of said imaged needles in accordance with its respective positional and orientation data and to place said needle in said precision engagement device.