The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.

The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.

Date of Patent:
Nov. 09, 2021

Filed:

Aug. 30, 2013
Applicant:

Tomra Sorting Limited, Dublin, IE;

Inventors:

John McGloughlin, County Kildare, IE;

James Frost, County Roscommon, IE;

Maurice Moynihan, Dublin, IE;

Assignee:

TOMRA SORTING LIMITED, Dublin, IE;

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
B07C 5/34 (2006.01); B07C 5/342 (2006.01); G01N 21/85 (2006.01); B07C 5/10 (2006.01); G01N 21/359 (2014.01); G01N 21/88 (2006.01); G01N 21/84 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
B07C 5/342 (2013.01); B07C 5/10 (2013.01); G01N 21/359 (2013.01); G01N 21/85 (2013.01); G01N 21/8851 (2013.01); B07C 2501/009 (2013.01); B07C 2501/0018 (2013.01); G01N 2021/8466 (2013.01); G01N 2201/04 (2013.01);
Abstract

A method for handling harvested root crops such as potatoes. The method includes the steps of optically imaging (i.e., by the hyper-spectral imaging system) a bulk flow of a harvested root crop to produce image data and analysing the image data to identify discrete objects within the bulk flow. Each identified object is categorised as either acceptable or unacceptable based on a comparison with at least one discriminator and objects classified as unacceptable are removed (by the ejector actuator) from the bulk flow to provide a sorted flow of the harvested root crop.


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