Are we close to a reasonably priced automatic Lego piece sorting device?

bobotech

I think such a machine would be a godsend to us.  I know that I would love to be able to dump bucket after bucket of Legos into a machine that can then properly identify the shape and color and sort that piece into various sorting buckets.  and then catalog all those pieces into a master database.  Would be awesome to then be able to cross reference a database that could then look at the pieces you have and tell you that "you have the proper pieces to build this and this sets so you can identify the sets that the pieces came from.  Or at least let you sort and catalog your massive collection of random legos and then have the database let you know what kinds of sets you could make from those pieces.   

I'm just wondering if such a device could be made fairly easily with the technology that is available to us now? 

ColoradoBricks

There will never be enough buckets for all the parts/color combinations :)

You can enter your set list on Rebrickable and it will tell you what sets you can build from those pieces... that is a start...

datsunrobbie

You might want to check this out, 
https://jacquesmattheij.com/sorting-two-metric-tons-of-lego/

Rebrickable.com will let you load your sets into a database and let you know what you can build. You can even import your set list from Brickset.

The_Rancor

I sometimes sort loose lots of Lego and I don't think there'll ever be a substitute for great general awareness of rarer pieces that help you identify which sets the lots can build. There's always Rebrickable though if you have the time to log all the pieces, quite time consuming in the situations I'm talking about though.

Concidentally there was an article on BBC today regarding a Lego building robot, but I'm pretty sure it can only build 2x4 by colour at the moment

Astrobricks

Also, I don’t think most people have a big enough collection that they would want it sorted COMPLETELY into unique piles by part design and color. Personally, I do almost no sorting by color unless a part starts to overflow an already large container. And, there are at least as many possible sorting preferences as there are AFOLs.

That being said, I’d probably still buy such a device if it existed. But I doubt it ever will. Maybe if we get AI capable general purpose robots that can be taught our personal sorting strategies.

Fauch

I think google has the technology for it, and they are probably not the only ones. the more pictures of a single piece you give to the program, the better it is at identifying this piece. maybe you could dump your parts in front of your webcam, and it could be able to identify them and inventory what you have.

datsunrobbie

My biggest problem with an auto-sorter is the same problem I have manually sorting, and that is the space that would be required to have several thousand bins lined up to receive the parts. 

snowhitie

I'd be worried about the scratching actually ;)

Would be interesting though, although I kind of enjoy sorting though and not just sort by colour/shape but also have different boxes for MOC's I'm planning to do in the future. I just wish I had my collection in rebrickable (my broken up sets are in there, but not all the bricks, plus that might not be accurate since things might have been used to make MOC's as presents).

I did ad PAB in the beginnning, but my screen time is pretty limited as it is. I am impressed by (and a bit jealous at) people who manage it though.