Automated classification of small jet engine parts

Manual part sorting of small jet engine parts can be a tedious process. Because of personnel shortages, the Small Parts office at Kelly AFB, in San Antonio, Texas, has difficulty in keeping up with the backlog of parts that need to be sorted for engine reassembly. Currently, there is a system being developed by the Robotics and Automation Center of Excellence (RACE) at Kelly that will help the Small Parts office to overcome their personnel shortages. This part sorting system, known as the Small Part Sorting System (SPaSS), will sort these parts by incorporating the use of a statistical model-based classifier algorithm with a machine vision system. This paper presents the experimental results of this classifier.