• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.112-117
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• 2010

A high-throughput sorting (HTS) system has been designed to separate target particles using a negative dielectrophoretic (n-DEP) force. The system consists of a meso-sized channel and a cantilever-type electrode(CE) array designed to separate a large number of target particles by discerning subtle difference of weight and dielectric material property of the particles. Using the polystyrene beads with various sizes of 10, 25 and $50{\mu}m$, the developed system exhibits high-throughput sorting of about 200 beads/sec and more than 80 % of separation efficiency.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.1-9
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• 2009

Processing mail objects in a mail processing center involves several steps and operations, in particular dispatching as well as sorting by destination. The purpose of this paper is to present a model for the part-time worker staffing and allocation problem as it arises at the parcel sorting area in a mail processing center. The problem is formulated as a mixed integer linear program model to minimize the variable part-time workforce related cost. Hot only the characteristics of the sorting operations but also the dispatching requirements of the vehicles are reflected into the model. Six example problems with three different daily amounts of arriving mail are solved with LINGO to demonstrate the effectiveness of the 7-level induction option for the parcel sorting machine over the current 3-level one. The results indicate that measurable savings can be achieved by departing from current practice.

• Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.100-105
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• 2000

Quality sorting of cut flowers is very essential to increase the value of products. There are many factors that determine the quality of cut flowers such as length, thickness, and straightness of stem, and color and maturity of bud. Among these factors, the straightness of stem and the maturity of bud are generally considered to be more difficult to evaluate. A prototype grading and sorting machine for cut flowers was developed and tested for a rose variety. The machine consisted of a chain-drive feed mechanism, a pneumatic discharge system, and a grading system utilizing color image processing and neural network. Artificial neural network algorithm was utilized to grade cut roses based on the straightness of stem and maturity of bud. Test results showed 89% agreement with human expert for the straightness of stem and 90% agreement for the maturity of bud. Average processing time for evaluating straightness of the stem and maturity of the bud were 1.01 and 0.44 second, respectively. Application of neural network eliminated difficulties in determining criteria of each grade category while maintaining similar level of classification error.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1995.10a
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• pp.859-863
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• 1995

Presented in the paper are a review of sorting and buffering system(SBS), the design procedure of a SBS and an analytical model for the initial alternative generation. SBS is an automated material handling system in which incoming items of different part types are automatically sorted and buffered so that the processing machines can process the part in lots. SBSs play a key role in modern manufacturing systems ans are widely found in mass fabrication lines, packaging and palletizing, and disribution centers.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.147-154
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• 2001

In Korea and Japan, dried oak mushrooms are classified into 12 to 16 different categories based on its external visual quality. And grading used to be done manually by the human expert and is limited to the randomly sampled oak mushrooms. Visual features of dried oak mushrooms dominate its quality and are distributed over both sides of the gill and the cap. The 2nd prototype computer vision based automatic grading and sorting system for dried oak mushrooms was developed based on the 1st prototype. Sorting function was improved and overall system for grading was simplified to one stage grading instead of two stage grading by inspecting both front and back sides of mushrooms. Neuro-net based side(gill or cap) recognition algorithm of the fed mushroom was adopted. Grading was performed with both images of gill and cap using neural network. A real time simultaneous discharge algorithm, which is good for objects randomly fed individually and for multi-objects located along a series of discharge buckets, was developed and implemented to the controller and the performance was verified. Two hundreds samples chosen from 10 samples per 20 grade categories were used to verify the performance of each unit such as feeding, reversing, grading, and discharging unites. Test results showed that success rates of one-line feeding, reversing, grading, and discharging functions were 93%, 95%, 94%, and 99% respectively. The developed prototype revealed successful performance such as the approximate sorting capability of 3,600 mushrooms/hr per each line i.e. average 1sec/mushroom. Considering processing time of approximate 0.2 sec for grading, it was desired to reduce time to reverse a mushroom to acquire the reversed surface image.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.27 no.7B
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• pp.686-694
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• 2002

In this paper, we introduce an improved sorting method of the IGIC(Improved initial stage Grouping Interference Canceller) system for advanced BER(Bit Error Rate) performance in DS-CDMA. Among non liner Interference Cancellers, the PIC(Parallel IC) with advanced initial stage by sorting method has the name of the IGIC(Improved initial stage Grouping Interference Canceller) system. In this system, All group are shared with the same number of users. But, if each group are divided the same users, so that difference of the signals strength appeared greatly in the same group. Up to this time, the weak signals have more effect of the MAI (Multiple Access Interference) from the strong signals in the same group. The proposed IC (Interference Canceller) to solve those problems has a better performance by using improved sorting method from IGIC system. A new sorting method is the technique that the strength of signals would be liked in the same group. So, the MAI is reduced as difference of signal strength minimize. Analysis of performance assayed to make comparison with other non liner interference canceller when power controlled and not one.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 1996.06c
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• pp.679-684
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• 1996

The work was aimed at realize the problem of seed processing . Solving this problem it was ascertained that the existing mathematical methods are reliable enough, but they are used practically very seldom. The work offers to use the expert system technology which allows to solve problems connected with practical knowledge of experts in the region of investigation effectively. The method of knowledge structuring and analizing as well as technique of knowledge acquisition which is necessary for realization of this technology are worked-out in the work. As the result applying the worked-out method the prototypes of the expert system (ES) are created : -ES " Sieves " ; research prototype for the sieve choice for the seed sorting machines -ES " Diagnostics " ; displaying prototype for the technological determination of action disrepair of seed sorting machines.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.43-49
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• 2008

In this study, a scrap sorting system using a color recognition method has been developed to automatically sort out specified materials from a mixture, and its application as been examined in the separation of Cu and other non-ferrous metal parts from a mixture of iron scraps. The system is composed of three parts; measuring, conveying and ejecting parts. The color of scrap surface is recognized by the measuring part consisting of a line-scan camera, light sources and a frame grabber. The recognition is program-controlled by a image processing algorithms, and thus only the scrap part of designated color is separated by the use of air nozzles. In addition, the light system is designed to meet a high speed of sorting process with a frequency-variable inverter and the air nozzled ejectors are to be operated by an I/O interface communication with a hardware controller. In the functional tests of the system, its efficiency in the recognition of Cu scraps from its mixture with Fe ones reaches to more than 90%, and that in the separation more than 80% at a conveying speed of 25 m/min. Therefore, it is expected that the system can be commercialized in the industry of shredder makers if a high efficiency ejecting system is realized.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.97-102
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• 2011

This study was performed to design and develop an ergonomic equipment for strawberry sorting and packing in agricultural working environments. Potential risk of work related musculo-skeletal disorders associated with farm workers performing strawberry sorting and packing was analyzed through interviews, field surveys, work measurement, and working posture evaluation. For the evaluation of working posture, we used REBA, OWAS, and RULA assessment methods to identify multi-factorial risk factors. Based on the result of comprehensive assessment, a new concept of multi-level rotating table for strawberry sorting and packing was proposed to modify awkward working postures and improve the effectiveness of the farm work. Finally, the characteristics and effectiveness of new equipment was discussed in terms of improvements in productivity, safety, and subjective ratings of farm workers. The results of analysis showed that working conditions improved significantly.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.29 no.12A
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• pp.1291-1297
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• 2004

In this paper, the new scheduling algorithm that supports the maximization of system throughput and the proportional fairness among non-real time traffic users is proposed in OFDMA wireless mobile communication systems. The concept of the proposed algorithm is based on the proportional fairness algorithm, which is deployed in 3GPP2, and sorting method. The proportional fairness algorithm is adapted to allocate the number of subcarrier per user. A sorting method is contributed to the maximization of system throughput in the practical allocation of subcarrier per user. Simulation results show that new algorithm had better performance than the max rate rule in case of fairness, higher throughput than the scheduling algorithm without sorting method. Even though the system throughput of the proposed algorithm is almost same with the iteration scheme using subcarrier swapping method between users, the computational time of the former is reduced up to 3 times than the latter.