BelgiumLogistics and transport2022 – ongoingbpost
AI machine vision on the parcel sorting machine at Brussels X
bpost gave its Brussels parcel sorting machine AI vision to catch stacked parcels and plastic bags
Problem
The parcel sorting machine at Brussels X, Belgium's largest sorting centre, relied on classic sensors. Stacked parcels and mis-scans could cause mis-deliveries, and flexible bags often went to manual sorting because their packaging looked bulky.
Approach
bpost worked with Covariant, a spinoff of the University of California, Berkeley, on a stereo camera system that analyses every parcel on the machine. The system sends stacked parcels to a separate chute and routes plastic-bag parcels straight to a shipping chute. It detects the smaller real product size inside the packaging, so more parcels ship at once. It was running at full speed during the year-end peak of 2022.
Results
No published figures
Takeaway
The release gives no performance figures. bpost planned to use the same camera data to track parcel damage and advise customers on packaging.
Categories
- Size
- Large enterprise
- Industry
- Logistics and transport
- Business function
- Production and quality
- Innovation type
- Process innovation
- AI technology
- Computer vision
- Adoption
- Partner co-development
- Evidence
- Company's own claim
Sources
Source summaries
IPC republished bpost's announcement of an AI vision system built with Covariant for the Brussels X sorting machine. It describes how stacked parcels and plastic bags are detected and routed. It states the machine's capacity of 25,000 parcels an hour and gives no results.
Full details are in the original sources.
