Optical type granule sorting machine

An optical type granule sorting machine comprising transfer means for transferring granules including conforming granules, nonconforming granules, and foreign substances in such a manner that the granules form a continuous flow, inspection means for inspecting the granules transferred by the transfer means, determination means for determining whether or not the granules are to be treated as a separation target based on individual color information on the granules inspected by the inspection means, and exclusion means for excluding the separation target determined by the determination means from the continuous flow,

• wherein the inspection means includes an illumination section that illuminates the granules with light and an optical detection section that detects light transmitted through the granules or reflected from the granules, and
• the determination means includes a three-dimensional color distribution data creation section that plots wavelength components of R light, G light, and B light from the granules detected by the optical detection section on a three-dimensional color space to create three-dimensional color distribution data for a granule sample;
• a learning and storing section that allows samples for conforming granules, nonconforming granules, and foreign substances preliminarily prepared by an operator to flow to the transfer means so that, when the optical detection section detects each of the samples to create three-dimensional color distribution data and the sample is displayed on an image, the operator visually classifies the sample as conforming granules, nonconforming granules, or foreign substances and the learning and storing section performs learning in association with the three-dimensional color distribution data;
• a Mahalanobis distance interface creation section that sets an interface calculated based on a Mahalanobis distance in the three-dimensional color distribution data created by the learning and storing section to partition the data into a first conforming granule cluster area containing many conforming granules and a first nonconforming granule cluster area containing many nonconforming granules and foreign substances;
• a Euclidean distance interface creation section that determines a position of center of gravity of the first conforming granule cluster area created by the Mahalanobis distance interface creation section and a position of center of gravity of the first nonconforming granule cluster area created by the Mahalanobis distance interface creation section, the Euclidean distance interface creation section setting an interface calculated based on a Euclidean distance at which the positions of center of gravity lie at a longest distance from each other to partition the data into a second conforming granule cluster area containing many conforming granules and a second nonconforming granule cluster area containing many nonconforming granules and foreign substances;
• a threshold determination section that determines a line of intersection between the interface calculated based on the Mahalanobis distance and the interface calculated based on the Euclidean distance, to determine the line of intersection to be a determination threshold that allows determination of whether or not the granules are to be treated as a separation target;
• and
• a conforming granule/nonconforming granule determination section that considers the granules to be a separation target if the data created on the three-dimensional color distribution data is determined not to belong to the threshold determined by the threshold determination section when a material is allowed to flow to the transfer means and a sorting operation is performed.