Lateral Optical Sensor With Slip Detection for Locating Live Products on Moving Conveyor

This paper presents a method to determine the 2-D profile and motion of a live product (such as chicken for poultry meat processing) on a moving conveyor from a lateral optical sensor that consists of an orthogonal pair of line array (LA) scanners. Unlike most line array (LA) scanners designed to provide a 2-D image of a static object, the lateral optical sensor presented here offers a practical means to detect object slippage on the conveyor in real time. Three examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of this sensing method. The first simulates the 2-D boundary of a geometrically well-defined object on an accelerating conveyor, which offers intuitive insights on the effects of conveyor dynamics and object slippage on the accuracy of the 2-D boundary measurement. The second experimentally demonstrates the extendibility of LA sensors to detect both engineering and natural objects. The final example illustrates the application of the lateral optical sensor as a real time feedback sensor for active singulation of natural objects.