Real-time motion prediction using the chromatic offset of line scan cameras

Abstract

Abstract State-of-the-art optical belt sorters commonly employ line scan cameras and use simple assumptions to predict each particle's movement, which is required for the separation process. Previously, we have equipped an experimental optical belt sorter with an area scan camera and were able to show that tracking the particles of the bulk material results in an improvement of the predictions and thus also the sorting process. In this paper, we use the slight gap between the sensor lines of an RGB line scan camera to derive information about the particles' movements in real-time. This approach allows improving the predictions in optical belt sorters without necessitating any hardware modifications.