45544 Colour Sorter Tensorflow mod with Raspberry Pi

[ebswift]

Here's something a little different, I needed a sorting machine using Tensorflow, Raspberry Pi and EV3 (with RPyc), so 45544 fit the bill pretty nicely.  The project took a couple of weeks to get up and running mostly due to having no exposure to either EV3, Tensorflow or RPyC, but it is definitely achievable with some shoe-horning here and there.  Don't hate my LEGO extension to the 45544 sorter too much, it was quick and nasty, the project isn't about the elegance of that side of things, it is more about making an end result that works doing something the EV3 can't on its own.  And work it does, it is able to reliably discern 4 image types stuck onto 3D printed tiles (in place of the technics bricks).  In the shorter term I will design and 3D print a support structure to hold the Raspberry Pi + camera.  That part will be done using driven design workflow in Autodesk Inventor, feeding in known LEGO brick dimensions for quick & easy parts alignment.  In the longer term I can see the addition of a vibratory bowl feeder with tiles being recycled after sorting for continuous operation.  Right now it is a technology demonstrator that will be used to introduce school children to some modern technology, I should be able to complete a design manual for them to replicate my working design.  Check it out if you're at all interested in controlling the EV3 externally to greatly expand its functionality:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSSh9iV70ng

 

[JopieK]

Looks very nice ebswift! 

[ebswift]

12 minutes ago, JopieK said:

Looks very nice ebswift! 

Thanks mate, hopefully will inspire people to explore further out of the box :).