Automatic separating system of transparent plastic bottle for reuse

最近，在日本，提倡循环型社会的趋势越来越明显。因此，本研究的目的是实现一个塑料瓶的自动回收再利用系统。2005年，我们尝试构建了由激光和超声波组成的透明物体形状测量和材料识别的原型系统。透明物体具有原始形状，即圆柱体、矩形棱柱、方形金字塔和球体。首先，我们自行设计并搭建了由六轴机器人和成像系统组成的激光测距系统，可以对塑料瓶等透明物体进行测量。实验结果表明，该原型激光测距仪能够有效地测量透明物体的形状。接下来，我们利用超声波传感器阵列制作了原型测量系统，该系统可以测量透明物体的形状并识别其材料。原型测量系统可以识别原始物体的形状。2006年，我们研制了激光测距仪和超声波测量系统的组合系统。通过实验验证了该组合系统的有效性。测量对象是市售的塑料瓶。从实验结果中证明了该测量方法的有效性和对感兴趣区域的识别。总之，本研究达到了原计划的目的。

Recently, there has been a growing trend to promote recycling society in Japan. This study therefore aim to realize an automatic separating system of plastic bottles for reuse.In 2005, we tried to construct to the pro type system to measure the shape and to identify the material of the transparent object, which consist of laser light and ultrasonic wave. The transparent object has the primitive shapes, which are a cylinder, a rectangle prism, a square pyramid, and a sphere. First, we designed and built both the laser rangefinder system, which consist of the 6-axis robot and the imaging system by our own making and can measure the transparent object such as plastic bottle. From experimental results, it is clear that the prototype laser rangefinder is effective to measure the shape of the transparent objects. Next, we made the prototype measurement system using the ultrasonic sensor array, which can measure the shape and identify the material of the transparent object. The prototype measurement system has allow to identify the shape of the primitive objects.In 2006, we made the combined system of laser rangefinder and the ultrasonic measurement system. We verified the usefulness of the combined system by experiment. The measured object is commercially available plastic bottles. From experimental results show the effectiveness of the measurement and the identification of the area of interest.In concluding, the research attained the originally planned object.