United States of America, as Represented by the Secretary of Agriculture

Anand Kumar Pothula

Akira Mizushima

Renfu Lu

Zhao Zhang

Mario Vandyke

As fruit (preferably apples) are harvested, the fruit is placed on a conveyor that conveys the fruit to a fruit singulating section. In the singulating section, the fruit is directed into slots in a lane formed by two cooperating helical drives. The helical drives rotate the fruit and convey the fruit into an imaging chamber where a camera acquires an image of the fruit. The fruit image is evaluated by a processor in communication with the camera. The fruit is then directed into a rotary sorter which sorts the fruit based on the image evaluation by the processor.

Growing community of inventors

Okemos, MI, United States of America

Anand Kumar Pothula