JP2017189748A - Onion sorting equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

An onion sorting apparatus sorts an onion class from data obtained by a transport means 2 for transporting an onion 1, an inspection means 11 for inspecting an onion transported by the transport means, and the data obtained by the inspection means. And determining means 7 for performing. The inspection means 11 includes a light source 13 that irradiates the onion with measurement light having a near-infrared wavelength that can be transmitted through the onion skin 1a, and a light receiving unit 14 that receives the measurement light irradiated on the onion. . The near infrared wavelength preferably has a wavelength in the range of 750 to 1400 nm, and more preferably has a wavelength of 850 nm.
[Effect] Since the near-infrared wavelength can be transmitted through the thin skin 1a of the onion 1, it is possible to obtain the data of the real 1b portion excluding the thin skin of the onion. The onion class can be selected quickly and accurately from the obtained data.
[Selection] Figure 3

Description

  The present invention relates to an onion sorting apparatus, and more particularly to an onion sorting apparatus that sorts onion classes based on data from an inspection means for inspecting onions.

Conventionally, as an onion sorting device, a conveying means for conveying an onion, an inspection means for inspecting an onion conveyed by the conveying means, and a determining means for selecting an onion class from data obtained by the inspection means What is provided is known (patent document 1, patent document 2).
The inspection means of Patent Document 1 is a photographing means for photographing an onion conveyed by the conveying means from above to obtain an image of the onion, and a beam beam is projected from the lateral direction toward the onion to height the onion. And the determining means selects the onion class from the projected area of the onion obtained by the photographing means and the height obtained by the light projecting means.
The inspection means of Patent Document 2 is configured to photograph onions conveyed by the conveyance means from the lateral direction, and the determination means is about to peel off the onion stems, roots, and images from the image data obtained by the inspection means. After removing unnecessary parts such as thin skin by image processing, the onion class is selected.

Japanese Patent Publication No. 58-259591 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-102875

An onion usually has several thin skins on the outside of the fruit, and the thin skin that has been peeled off makes the onion appear larger by that amount, causing a sorting error.
In the above-mentioned Patent Document 2, the thin skin that has been peeled off is deleted by image processing. However, there are many cases where it is difficult to accurately recognize which part is the thin skin that has been peeled off. There was a certain limit to reducing the above. In addition, since it takes a relatively long time to execute the image processing accurately, there is a disadvantage that a high-performance and expensive determination means is required to increase the processing speed.
An object of the present invention is to provide an onion sorting device that can quickly determine a class without degrading sorting accuracy even with an onion having a peeled skin.

That is, the invention of claim 1 comprises a conveying means for conveying an onion, an inspecting means for inspecting an onion conveyed by the conveying means, and a determining means for selecting an onion class from data obtained by the inspecting means. In the onion sorting device provided,
The inspection means includes a light source that irradiates the onion with measurement light having a near infrared wavelength that can be transmitted through the thin skin of the onion, and a light receiving unit that receives the measurement light irradiated on the onion. It is a feature.
As shown in claim 2, the near-infrared wavelength measuring light preferably has a wavelength in the range of 750 to 1400 nm.

According to the invention of claim 1, the light source of the inspection means irradiates the onion with measuring light having a near-infrared wavelength, and the near-infrared wavelength can pass through the thin skin of the onion. Therefore, the data obtained by the light receiving unit that receives the measurement light is the actual data excluding the onion thin skin.
Therefore, the determination unit can quickly and accurately select the onion class from the data without performing complicated image processing as in Patent Document 2.
Further, the light source of the inspection means only needs to be able to irradiate measurement light having a near infrared wavelength, and therefore the inspection means does not become expensive.

The side view which shows the Example of this invention. The top view of FIG. The perspective view of FIG. An example of image data 6 obtained by the photographing means 3. An example of the image data 15 obtained by the inspection means 11.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described with reference to the illustrated embodiments. In FIGS. 1 to 3, the onion sorting device photographs from above the conveying means 2 that conveys the onion 1 and the onion 1 that is conveyed by the conveying means 2. The photographing means 3 is provided. In the illustrated embodiment, a PK (piano key) type conveyor is used as the transport means 2, but a belt conveyor, a roller conveyor, an overhead conveyor, a bucket conveyor, or the like can also be used.
The photographing means 3 photographs the onion 1 from above, and includes a gate-shaped gate 4 and a digital camera 5 provided on a horizontal portion 4a of the gate-shaped gate 4, and the onion 1 is detected by a sensor (not shown). Is detected to pass through the position immediately below the camera 5, the camera 5 starts to shoot the onion 1, and the image data 6 (FIG. 4) taken by the camera 5 is determined by the judging means 7 (FIG. 2, FIG. 2). 3). Of course, the camera 5 may be an analog camera, a CCD camera, a CMOS camera, or the like.
The image data 6 shown in FIG. 4 is, for example, image data in the case where the onion 1 has one thin skin 1a that is about to peel off before and after in the transport direction, and the determination means 7 uses the image data 6 as described above. The entire structure including the thin skin 1a is binarized, and the maximum length, minimum diameter, and area of the onion 1 viewed from the upper surface direction are measured.

On the downstream side of the photographing unit 3, another inspection unit 11 for inspecting the onion 1 conveyed by the conveyance unit 2 is provided.
The inspection means 11 includes a gate-shaped gate 12, a light source 13 provided on one leg 12a of the gate-shaped gate 12, and a light-receiving unit 14 provided on the other leg 12b. The signal received by the unit 14 is input to the determination means 7.
The light source 13 can irradiate near-infrared wavelengths toward the onion 1, and the light source 13 includes, for example, a plurality of infrared LEDs arranged in a line in the vertical direction on the one leg 12a. can do.
Therefore, the measurement light having a near-infrared wavelength emitted from the light source 13 becomes line light in the vertical direction with respect to the horizontal conveying means 2. Further, the near-infrared wavelength of the measurement light is desirably a wavelength within a range of 750 to 1400 nm in order to transmit the thin skin 1a of the onion 1, and a wavelength of 850 nm is optimal. Note that the light source 13 and the light receiving unit 14 are not necessarily limited to a single row, and may be arranged in two rows in a staggered manner, for example.

When the onion 1 passes through the inspection means 11, the measurement light from the light source 13 and the light reception by the light receiving unit 14 are performed at a constant timing in synchronization with the passing speed of the onion 1. As a result, the image data 15 shown in FIG. 5 can be obtained.
Since the measurement light having the infrared wavelength of 850 nm can pass through several thin skins 1a, the image data 15 becomes image data of the real 1b portion of the onion 1 from which the thin skin 1a has been removed. Can measure the maximum length, height, area, and traveling direction length of the real 1b portion of the onion 1 from the data.

As described above, the image data 6 from the photographing unit 3 is also input to the determination unit 7, and when there is a difference between the image data 6 and 17, the determination unit 7 has a difference in diameter, for example. If there is, a small numerical diameter is adopted, and the onion class is selected based on the data.
A plurality of discharge means (not shown) are provided on the downstream side of the transfer means, and the discharge means selects and discharges the onions for each same class based on the determination result of the determination means 7. It is like that.

In the above embodiment, the photographing means 3 and the inspection means 11 are provided, and the class of the onion 1 is selected based on the two types of image data 6 and 15, but the photographing means 3 may be omitted. Good. That is, if only the inspection means 11 is used, the diameter of the onion 1 in the transport direction of the fruit 1b can be measured, but the diameter in the direction orthogonal to the transport direction cannot be measured. In this case, since there are few spheres that are distorted, only the inspection means 11 may be provided.
Further, the inspection unit 11 may be disposed on the upstream side of the imaging unit 3.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Onion 1a Thin skin 1b Real 2 Conveying means 3 Imaging means 6, 15 Image data 7 Judging means 11 Inspection means 13 Light source 14 Light receiving part

Claims (4)

In an onion sorting apparatus comprising: a conveying means for conveying onions; an inspecting means for inspecting onions conveyed by the conveying means; and a determining means for selecting an onion class from the data obtained by the inspecting means.
The inspection means includes a light source that irradiates the onion with measurement light having a near infrared wavelength that can be transmitted through the thin skin of the onion, and a light receiving unit that receives the measurement light irradiated on the onion. A characteristic onion sorting device.   The onion sorting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the measurement light has a wavelength in a range of 750 to 1400 nm.   The onion sorting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the measurement light is vertical line light, and is irradiated from a side of the conveyed onion.   An imaging means for photographing the onion from above is provided, wherein the determination means selects an onion class based on the data obtained by the inspection means and the data obtained by the imaging means. The onion sorting apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

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