NXT Sorter Project Update

I haven't had a lot of time lately to work on hobby robotics*, so instead of waiting until my current project is finished, I wanted to share some of the development of this new project. Here's a video that shows two sub modules of it in action.

The new project isn't something unique. In fact, it's just another NXT brick sorter. However, since I'm not limited to one-set constraints, I tried a few things I haven't done before. The sorting machine that I intend to build is a little bigger than otherwise, and it's also a bit smarter.

For example, it is now able to identify the size and color of a brick no matter its orientation. My older sorters required bricks to be placed in a straight chute, one by one in a sequence. Additionally, the idea is to make it fully automatic. That is, just throw in a big pile of bricks and wait while they're being sorted.

*The joy of an engineering degree is that you get to build robots outside your hobby, too! I hope to be able to post more details about a functional butler robot (full size) soon...