US Patent 11354546 Insect singulation and classification

An insect sortation system can track movement of insects along a predefined pathway. The insect sortation system includes a puff-back system for moving insects toward an inlet of the pathway and a puff-forward system for moving insects toward an outlet of the pathway. An overhead imaging system captures images of the insects at one or more locations along the pathway. Once imaged, the insect may be classified into a category (e.g., sex category, species category, size category, etc.) using a variety of different classification approaches including, for example, an industrial vision classifier and/or a machine learning classifier. Once classified, the insects can be directed to various chambers for subsequent processing.