The WORLD'S FIRST Universal LEGO Sorting Machine

Ғылым және технология

Over two years in the making, this is the world's first Universal LEGO Sorting Machine, an AI-powered automated sorting machine that is capable of recognizing and sorting any LEGO part that has ever been produced*.
Follow me on Twitter for more updates and information about this and other projects: JustASquid/
Be sure to check out my video about how I designed an artificial intelligence system to recognize LEGO parts: kzread.info/dash/bejne/X4l7zpKTf6bNp7Q.html
I have also written some articles about some of the technology underlying the sorting machine:
towardsdatascience.com/a-high-speed-computer-vision-pipeline-for-the-universal-lego-sorting-machine-253f5a690ef4
towardsdatascience.com/how-i-created-over-100-000-labeled-lego-training-images-ec74191bb4ef
If you'd like to contact me, you can reach me on Twitter ( JustASquid/)
Or LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-west-351731139/)
Or email daniel DOT west DOT 279 AT gmail.com
Music from the album 'Mirage' by the one and only Sam Gossner: samulis.bandcamp.com/album/mirage
Filming by my good friend Larry: kzread.info/dron/2iyG4YeRhCi54dJuHvdSjw.html
Editing and thumbnail by the incredible Test-Object - he's open for commissions: dieter DOT theuns AT gmail.com
This project would not have been possible without the use of some incredible open source hardware and software:
The Ldraw Part Library: ldraw.org
The Raspberry Pi Computer: raspberrypi.org
Blender: blender.org
Tensorflow: tensorflow.org
The Rebrickable part database: rebrickable.com
* (Subject to some limitations, e.g. parts that are unable to fit in the machine, flexible/articulated parts, parts not in the LDraw part library, etc)

Пікірлер: 370

  • @BeyondtheBrick
    @BeyondtheBrick4 жыл бұрын

    Fantastic work, Daniel. Keep it up!

  • @colemanhugh6317

    @colemanhugh6317

    2 жыл бұрын

    Instablaster.

  • @OriginalIdeaWeb
    @OriginalIdeaWeb4 жыл бұрын

    Please consider a kickstarter or something, or selling plans and the software? This is amazing

  • @minlrgo

    @minlrgo

    Жыл бұрын

    i will eventualy do one that i will sell and it will handle as many different category as you want without more motor

  • @iRONcss

    @iRONcss

    Жыл бұрын

    @@minlrgo pls contact me

  • @minlrgo

    @minlrgo

    Жыл бұрын

    @@iRONcss do you have an email or discord

  • @csullivan626

    @csullivan626

    Жыл бұрын

    I’d like to invest if you need any funding. I’d also like to own 1. Please feel free to reach out!

  • @minlrgo

    @minlrgo

    Жыл бұрын

    @@csullivan626 are you speaking to me ? or to andrew or else ?

  • @matthewnuzzaco2849
    @matthewnuzzaco28494 жыл бұрын

    I worked alongside a team in 2014 on a system that classified and counted LEGO. The concept worked but to industrialize the process was pretty challenging. Dealing with parts stuck together was the biggest problem. I love the fact that you went super meta and also made the machine out of LEGO

  • @csullivan626

    @csullivan626

    Жыл бұрын

    Agreed. Selling the unit is an option but also selling the design so people can built their own is a good idea too since .. they obviously have legos and want to build stuff (would rather sort than toss). Lego inc. might even be interested!

  • @mortensimonsen1645
    @mortensimonsen16453 жыл бұрын

    The LEGO Company should make and sell lego-sorting machines. It should be possible to instruct the machine to sort bricks for a particular lego set, and note which pieces are missing (then automatically create a list of Bricklink).

  • @Pv-productions
    @Pv-productions4 жыл бұрын

    Great project and execution. Bringing the best of LEGO and engineering together in a useful way!

  • @SamSmithNZ
    @SamSmithNZ7 ай бұрын

    Are there plans for this? Is there a new version? I'm curious where this has gone in 3 years. Would love to see something like this open sourced (or sold) so the community can build on this.

  • @jacobl777
    @jacobl7774 жыл бұрын

    Wow Daniel, super impressive! I am amazed at the creativity, resourcefulness, and just how cool it was that you did this. I am going to show this to my young son as an example of what he can aspire to with some some creativity and fortitude.

  • @friendlychips
    @friendlychips4 ай бұрын

    I'm so glad someone brought this idea to life. It is incredible what you have created and I can't wait to see whatever you do next!

  • @zaquszacz
    @zaquszacz4 жыл бұрын

    I'm totally in love with this project :D Great execution! Will surely feature this in my weekly technology report (even though I saw this a little bit late). Good luck with any following projects!

  • @Anthonybrother
    @Anthonybrother2 жыл бұрын

    This is an amazing proof of concept. A very useful machine. Please consider making one to sort nuts, bolts and screws, and get rich selling it to DIYers. I'd be ready to pledge like 100$ if you needed crowdfunding.

  • @brothersbrick
    @brothersbrick4 жыл бұрын

    That's incredible. Well done!

  • @teamblueflare5464
    @teamblueflare54644 жыл бұрын

    Dude this is amazing and you are amazing, someone get this man some views

  • @chinca
    @chinca4 жыл бұрын

    amazing. Been dreaming up something along these lines for years. Bravo on getting it done!

  • @nicolaimogensen8167
    @nicolaimogensen81674 жыл бұрын

    Very cool project, have been following along on Twitter. Good job 😎

  • @naugthiusmaximus5013
    @naugthiusmaximus50132 жыл бұрын

    Woahh!! Crazy stuff, I like. I've dreamt of a machine like this but in which you could feed in specific model(s) plan(s) so that the sorting can be made to segregate a ton-load of pieces by models. This could be a super tool for dads with kids that had way too much legos over the years and now all the pieces are mixed up in the same bin or part of a weird custom made model 😁 ....just an idea for your next project🤣

  • @kebvr25
    @kebvr252 жыл бұрын

    This is incredible!! Would you do a video on the 18 categories you use? I've been trying to find a good way to organize bricks.

  • @xobotix
    @xobotix4 жыл бұрын

    I cant wait to see what you do next :) Cheers

  • @TheGrainDoctor
    @TheGrainDoctor4 жыл бұрын

    Very cool! Looking forward to the other video!

  • @ninline2000
    @ninline20003 жыл бұрын

    This is an amazing project. Well done.

  • @swampcastle8142
    @swampcastle8142 Жыл бұрын

    Step one: buy a big pile of legos Step two: build a sorting machine Step three: buy another big pile of legos Step four: sort the pile of legos Love it

  • @antoniorobles8706
    @antoniorobles87064 жыл бұрын

    Hard work, passion, creativity, technology, ART!

  • @neumannon
    @neumannon4 жыл бұрын

    This is fantastic! I've had this idea for awhile but just never had time to dedicate to the project. As a "Phase 2", my plan was to keep an inventory database of the detected bricks that were sorted. Then run this database against all available lego building set instructions. So based on the legos someone owns, they can choose a set of instructions and build to completion whatever the thing is. And on top of this, maybe add thresholds where a user can say they want lego instructions for sets that are a certain percent complete. so if i input 90%, it would find not only lego instructions for sets i can complete in its entirety but lego instructions where i have 90% of the bricks available to complete the set. One last thing, you could have a user community for contributing instruction sets. A person could filter on official only instructions or include user generated instructions as well. Anyway, it is a pipe dream of mine. If you are feeling ambitious, maybe it is something you could add on to your already awesome invention.

  • @kevinagan6174

    @kevinagan6174

    4 жыл бұрын

    That technology already exists. Take a look at the "build" section of rebrickable.com/build/

  • @Bandit-Darville
    @Bandit-Darville4 жыл бұрын

    Nice! This video made it on to a news website here in The Netherlands!

  • @Just_Paulo

    @Just_Paulo

    4 жыл бұрын

    Lol. Same. Just got it into my Google feed

  • @stopmotionmaster5933

    @stopmotionmaster5933

    4 жыл бұрын

    Welke als ik vragen mag?

  • @Bandit-Darville

    @Bandit-Darville

    4 жыл бұрын

    nu.nl www.nu.nl/277861/video/slimme-lego-machine-herkent-en-sorteert-lego-stenen.html

  • @ThatDumbDoge

    @ThatDumbDoge

    4 жыл бұрын

    Nog niet gelezen, ga nu bekijken!

  • @carlwestman9343
    @carlwestman93433 жыл бұрын

    Awsome project! Will you ever make any of the code/dataset public? 😊 I think the benefits would be great since more people could keep improving both 😁

  • @tonyshepherd6053
    @tonyshepherd60534 жыл бұрын

    Great job Daniel!

  • @p.b.6034
    @p.b.6034 Жыл бұрын

    wooow... Daniel you made incredible job. I love spend time with brick but sorting for long time is exhausting :D

  • @antoineddpLEGOTechnic
    @antoineddpLEGOTechnic3 жыл бұрын

    Really nice job ! Hope it will goes even faster !

  • @gyverworld
    @gyverworld4 жыл бұрын

    Awesome man... Nice Work

  • @Darthrush1
    @Darthrush14 жыл бұрын

    You are a genius, absolutely amazing work.

  • @LegoCloud
    @LegoCloud4 жыл бұрын

    Dang dude that is insane, I’d lose my mind building that thing you. are. truly insane! :)

  • @c0nsaw
    @c0nsaw4 жыл бұрын

    Fantastic, well done

  • @manugo4
    @manugo44 жыл бұрын

    Amazing work!!

  • @albusron3490
    @albusron34903 жыл бұрын

    "Everyone hates sorting LEGO" Speak for yourself, I LOVE sorting LEGO.

  • @joki6395
    @joki63954 жыл бұрын

    u are very smart, I have had ideas of a machine like this myself, but never understood how the computer would recognize a part

  • @Victor.Channel
    @Victor.Channel4 жыл бұрын

    Great idea. Thank’s for sharing.

  • @NinaKlos
    @NinaKlos4 жыл бұрын

    This is awesome!

  • @BurnZKc
    @BurnZKc4 жыл бұрын

    This is insane, how cool!

  • @alirezakaramali1844
    @alirezakaramali18444 жыл бұрын

    good job. this is very interesting project .I enjoyed.

  • @IanNelson888
    @IanNelson8884 жыл бұрын

    This is soooo freakin cool!

  • @DamoZhang
    @DamoZhang2 ай бұрын

    wow! great job!

  • @angellomercado5747
    @angellomercado57474 жыл бұрын

    Wuao 2 años, excelente amigo, saludos desde Perú 🇵🇪

  • @toyaji6123
    @toyaji61233 жыл бұрын

    Beautiful!

  • @iPondrio
    @iPondrio3 жыл бұрын

    It would be nice to see this as an official LEGO set, I would definitely buy it !

  • @ivanivonovich9863

    @ivanivonovich9863

    2 жыл бұрын

    It would be the most expensive set you could have. Plus, you did read that it took 2 years to design and developed this, right? So how long do you think it would take to assemble one from a set? Perhaps at least two months? And that would be if you got every moving part/system together right the first time. Great idea though!

  • @cgstadler
    @cgstadler4 жыл бұрын

    Daniel - can you comment as to how you decided on the final buckets / taxonomy? Like, is it all gears in one bucket, and then simple blocks? I'd love to see more on that, if you do a followup video. Thank you!

  • @RailRoad188
    @RailRoad1889 ай бұрын

    Very impressive, and will help so many with other similar, and less similar projects! ❤

  • @sbazzle
    @sbazzle2 жыл бұрын

    Daniel, have you continued to use this machine or made improvements to it? There definitely needs to be an updated video to this (or additional article updates), preferably with more information on the details of its operation.

  • @mattiasranbro
    @mattiasranbro4 жыл бұрын

    Well done!

  • @g2rinfo675
    @g2rinfo6754 жыл бұрын

    We could use that at Gears 2 Robots! So much time is spent sorting Lego Education kits after summer camps and classes!

  • @an3my554
    @an3my5543 жыл бұрын

    Underrated ngl, great

  • @griszaowniuk5775
    @griszaowniuk57752 жыл бұрын

    Fantastic job 👌

  • @Brickyfilms
    @Brickyfilms2 жыл бұрын

    Absolutely incredible

  • @TheLab-X
    @TheLab-X2 жыл бұрын

    Just found your video. Great job!

  • @rudestrudedog
    @rudestrudedog3 жыл бұрын

    Great Job!!!

  • @BricksMinifigs1078
    @BricksMinifigs10784 жыл бұрын

    Would love to figure out how to build this, awesome work!

  • @Relhak11
    @Relhak114 жыл бұрын

    This would be insanely useful for sorting parts from new sets. I typically open 10-30 copies of a set at a time and match up the bags so there are about 25-35 unique parts in a batch of 1000+ pieces. Being able to have them sorted at even 95%+ accuracy would be huge. I'd love to help in testing to make this something that can be built and used by lots of people.

  • @cskinner2108

    @cskinner2108

    9 ай бұрын

    Why do you open 25-35 sets at a time? How had it been 3 years and no one questioned this?

  • @John-bq1lp
    @John-bq1lp4 жыл бұрын

    Wow incredible!

  • @bakkerem1967
    @bakkerem19674 жыл бұрын

    I'm curious if you will be able to link to resulting brick inventory to the bricklink database, so you instantly can see what sets the lot comprises of (and what stones are missing). Next step would be to sort the bricks straight into bins, dedicated to a single set.

  • @ValleyOfWillows
    @ValleyOfWillows4 жыл бұрын

    I work at a tortilla chips manufacturing company and they use the same technique of a vibrating plate to spread out the chips with before they pass them under a camera to see if there are too browned or burned chips among them.

  • @Ree1981

    @Ree1981

    4 жыл бұрын

    Well now you can input random variable images into the neural net and increase its efficiency!

  • @madmax.bricks
    @madmax.bricks4 жыл бұрын

    We want instructions!

  • @onegalaxyplay
    @onegalaxyplay3 жыл бұрын

    So cool! i saw this when i was at the Raspberry Pi website.

  • @Attirbrolyat
    @Attirbrolyat Жыл бұрын

    I check up on the progress of this every few years. It would be great if some day there was a machine -- like a coinstar -- i could dump buckets of legos into for sorting! I would pay good money for that, though with so many different shapes and colors, I suppose it would be very difficult, as you demonstrate here. You would also have trouble with dust and other random junk that seems to build in lego storage containers over time. Also, where would it sort it into? I think perhaps a good business model would be to ask someone to ship you a box and then you would provide a storage container with many compartments. That would allow you to keep it relatively small scale until you had the capital to build more sorting machines.

  • @chrisallsopp6450
    @chrisallsopp6450 Жыл бұрын

    very clever keep it up, thanks

  • @utnildo
    @utnildo3 жыл бұрын

    This is amazing

  • @kostyavedernikov
    @kostyavedernikov3 жыл бұрын

    It is very very cool! You are genius!

  • @AgeArena
    @AgeArena3 жыл бұрын

    Great work! How accurate was the classification?

  • @10poundsimracing14
    @10poundsimracing143 жыл бұрын

    Cool design

  • @daved22
    @daved224 жыл бұрын

    Can you put this on Lego Ideas, i know it would never get made but maybe its a way to give lego wake up call of what AFOLs really want . less time sorting and more time building !

  • @coleklaassen9427
    @coleklaassen94274 жыл бұрын

    David, first off I love this so much you're a genius. Because the pieces aren't all the way sorted, could you put each bucket (category) back into the machine and let it further sort it? In the end, you could be 100% sorted. Just a thought.

  • @coleklaassen9427

    @coleklaassen9427

    4 жыл бұрын

    Also, your name isn't David that's a fun mistake, so sorry

  • @FarragoFox
    @FarragoFox4 жыл бұрын

    Have you considered adding a counting function for inventory?

  • @seandavchrsn
    @seandavchrsn4 жыл бұрын

    Well done, sir.

  • @ArcadiumSol
    @ArcadiumSol4 жыл бұрын

    Id love to have one of these

  • @tiangersbach
    @tiangersbach4 жыл бұрын

    shut up and take my money!!

  • @TheKodypratt
    @TheKodypratt4 жыл бұрын

    awesome!

  • @julianholcroft9625
    @julianholcroft96254 жыл бұрын

    Can you make the training data available want to make a similar project but I don't really understand how you made the images or what AI you are using from the TensorFlow package.

  • @zebramax3
    @zebramax34 жыл бұрын

    Hey this is great... You just discovered how to sort plastic bottles into the right plastic groups for recycling.

  • @Quantum-Bullet

    @Quantum-Bullet

    4 жыл бұрын

    zebramax3 and, how many % are actually really recycled and not burned?

  • @davis3138

    @davis3138

    4 жыл бұрын

    It's trained on 3D models. So do you really think it's feasible to make a 3D model for every single type of plastic bottle, every color, every brand, every shape, not to mention variations of such bottles, whether they be dented, malformed, or otherwise misshapen?

  • @fitybux4664

    @fitybux4664

    2 жыл бұрын

    @Roman Hauksson-Neill For the non-popular ones, you can just sell it to the next guy with a better sorter. :-)

  • @Tekar0
    @Tekar03 жыл бұрын

    I'm dreaming of the day when I can select a brick in an app on my phone, point the camera to a pile of Lego and it finds and highlights the brick on my screen. Sort of like the real time text translation, but then for finding Lego bricks.

  • @math_science_programming188
    @math_science_programming1884 жыл бұрын

    I need this for the kids, big up!

  • @notexcisting546
    @notexcisting5464 жыл бұрын

    How can you be sick of sorting? It's the best part of LEGO! But I love your approach.

  • @anarrichjr6747

    @anarrichjr6747

    4 жыл бұрын

    +1000!

  • @UnwrappingByMimiKoteng
    @UnwrappingByMimiKoteng4 жыл бұрын

    Amazing

  • @shpe11
    @shpe114 жыл бұрын

    I find very useful to sort lego by colors

  • @StevesRealWorld
    @StevesRealWorld2 жыл бұрын

    I'll take one!!! Love it

  • @gijsjonkheer9863
    @gijsjonkheer98634 жыл бұрын

    Hey, Do you by any change plan to make your code available? I love this idea and I would like to try to give my own spin at it (possibly looking at how the sorting and storing could be done more efficiently). But my coding experience isn't that strong so it would help me to have a jump-off point.

  • @nomadMik
    @nomadMik3 жыл бұрын

    Wow. You win KZread this week!

  • @BuWizzBrick
    @BuWizzBrick2 жыл бұрын

    Very impressive! :-)

  • @PsyKater
    @PsyKater4 жыл бұрын

    This is what Bricklink Shop owners are waiting for xD

  • @Ilyasmaroc2
    @Ilyasmaroc22 жыл бұрын

    PLEASE PLEASE PLEEEAASSSSE SELL THIS AND MAKE A COMPANY

  • @sdkfgnrjdi
    @sdkfgnrjdi2 жыл бұрын

    I cannot believe this guy stopped making videos after this one. I hope that is because his focusing on the production of this amazing machine.

  • @elberk88
    @elberk88 Жыл бұрын

    Amazing you are a Hero 🙂

  • @michaelweatherby8648
    @michaelweatherby86483 жыл бұрын

    Great job, very cool and technically impressive! I had seen the video from 2017 also, and just recently helped my son organize his legos into 6 categories. I too am motivated to perhaps build a lego sorter. 1x square bricks, 2x square bricks, flat pieces (any size), transparent/angled/architectural bricks, technic (anything that connects, wheels, or wheel hubs), and people/animal accessories. We've found with those 6 categories that it becomes much easier to find items without having to have massive amounts of categories. I think you said 1 piece every 2 seconds, is the limiting factor in your system the mechanical separation or the video/AI processing? It would be interesting if one could develop a more compact and speedy version, by reducing the requirements for accuracy. I thought it would be interesting if one could dump a bucket of lego and resort it into sets one had purchased, based on the parts list. it could be offered as a service at LEGO shows.

  • @sqiddster

    @sqiddster

    3 жыл бұрын

    Thanks, and good luck with your own machine! The part throughput is definitely limited by the mechanical separation. The AI speed is very fast.

  • @Skorpeonismyrealname
    @Skorpeonismyrealname4 жыл бұрын

    Designing, building, prototyping, programming, bugfixing, and improving it is still probably faster than doing it manually.

  • @SandsGC
    @SandsGC4 жыл бұрын

    Fantastic

  • @BrickByBrick
    @BrickByBrick4 жыл бұрын

    nice machine did you have some instructions?

  • @tanullaci206
    @tanullaci206 Жыл бұрын

    @Daniel West. can you share the how you builded the green shaker part?

  • @polyanskyvideo
    @polyanskyvideo3 жыл бұрын

    thats great!

  • @TheCentaury
    @TheCentaury4 жыл бұрын

    now a second machine that shuffle the sorted containers and feed the sorting machine

  • @sputnikxxx
    @sputnikxxx2 жыл бұрын

    I need one of these

  • @gorancelion3297
    @gorancelion32974 жыл бұрын

    What criteria do you use to determine which model part goes to which container? - all parts of the same color of whatever shape go to the same container - all parts of the building with the same shape regardless of color goes to the same container - all parts of a lego model such as a helicopter or fire station go to the same container

  • @sqiddster

    @sqiddster

    4 жыл бұрын

    It's arbitrary, and it would take a minimal point of code to change it to work like any of those options

  • @MattApple_
    @MattApple_4 жыл бұрын

    I wonder how it handles non-Lego; either knock-off bricks or random objects. Also the feeder system requires that all the bricks be disconnected from each other inside the hopper. Would stuck together bricks be treated like a never before seen piece type?

  • @peegee101
    @peegee1013 жыл бұрын

    Dude, this is amazing. Have you considered to use a Google Coral edge-processor to make it fully autarg? Basically a the Google Coral can infer Neural Networks really fast, and can be connected as a dongle to raspberry pi.

  • @t0ms3nt0ms3n

    @t0ms3nt0ms3n

    2 жыл бұрын

    Today it's really hard to find a coral sold somewhere anymore 😭

  • @matt77hias
    @matt77hias4 жыл бұрын

    Why do you not use one of the LEGO CAD programs for training? That way you can use 3D models with all possible cameras and lighting instead of relying on 2D photographs.