AI Smart Vision Sorter with Jetson Nano & 4-DOF Gripper Arm
Build an automated industrial sorting cell: high-speed conveyor belt, real-time YOLO object classification, and robotic pick-and-place.
An industrial automation project combining edge AI and mechanical manipulation: camera inspection over a conveyor, real-time object classification and defect detection with YOLO, and a 4-DOF robotic arm sorting items into sorting bins.
Bill of Materials (BOM) & Components
| Component | Specifications | Qty | Estimated Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4-DOF Acrylic/Aluminum Robotic Arm Kit with Gripper | Includes 4x MG996R metal-gear servos (10kg.cm torque) | 1 | $45 |
| Mini DC Motor Conveyor Belt Assembly (30cm length) | Adjustable speed DC motor with high-grip rubber belt | 1 | $38 |
| NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano or Raspberry Pi 5 + Camera | Real-time vision classification pipeline | 1 | $85 |
| Infrared Proximity Beam Sensor | Detects item arrival at inspection zone for hardware trigger | 1 | $5 |
| 5V 6A Regulated Power Supply | Powers all servos and sensors without voltage sag | 1 | $18 |
Electrical & Architecture Summary
IR beam sensor triggers Jetson camera capture. YOLOv8 identifies item class and coordinates. Inverse kinematics script commands the 4-DOF arm to grasp and deposit into the matching category bin.
Step-by-Step Assembly & Configuration
Conveyor & Arm Mechanical Integration
Mount the sorting arm beside the conveyor drop-off zone. Position the top-down inspection camera perpendicularly over the conveyor.
- Secure base plate to eliminate arm recoil during rapid movements.
- Install lighting hood to provide constant illumination for the vision system.
Camera Calibration & Pixel-to-Millimeter Mapping
Map camera pixel coordinates (u, v) to physical arm base Cartesian coordinates (X, Y) using a 2D affine perspective transformation.
- Place reference markers on the conveyor belt surface.
- Compute 3x3 perspective homography matrix using `cv2.getPerspectiveTransform`.
YOLOv8 Inference Pipeline & Pick-and-Place State Machine
Deploy the classification model and write the master sorting state machine in Python.
- Wait for IR beam trigger interrupt.
- Capture frame, run YOLO inference, calculate grasping angle.
- Execute IK trajectory: Lower Gripper -> Close -> Lift -> Move to Bin -> Release.