Empty conveyor in real time
It alerts when a conveyor has been empty for longer than you decide, so whoever feeds the line knows straight away.
Agri-food · Bespoke
Empty conveyor detection: how much your line runs without material
On a lettuce, broccoli or other bulk product line, a conveyor with no material is lost capacity and hardly anyone records it. A camera above the conveyor and an AI detect when it is empty and measure how long for, by line and by shift.
Conveyor 2Empty now
InfeedConveyor 2Packaging
Alert to whoever feeds the line: conveyor 2 is empty. Conveyor 1 and conveyor 3 have material.
Illustrative example
What it detects
What a camera above the conveyor measures
Designed for bulk or trayed product, with the conveyor as the area to watch.
Empty time per line
It adds up the time each conveyor runs without material and compares one line with another.
Empty time per shift
You see in which shift and at what times it happens most, to look for the cause.
Empty or low on material
It distinguishes an empty conveyor from one with little material, because it is not the same problem and it is not fixed the same way.
Normal empty periods and ones that are not
It separates expected empty periods, such as a product changeover or cleaning, from those that are not.
Where the flow breaks
When a conveyor empties, it checks whether the previous one has product or is stopped, to identify where the flow is failing.
How the alert arrives
From the data to the person who can act
An alert that does not reach whoever can fix it is useless. That is why we design it from the end backwards.
- The camera watches the conveyor
A fixed camera, above or beside the conveyor, sees whether it is carrying product. It is calibrated with your actual product, which looks like no other.
- Counts the empty time
Each time the conveyor runs empty for longer than a few seconds that we set with you, it starts counting. That way it does not trigger on a normal gap between two boxes.
- Alerts and summarises
Alerts whoever feeds the line and, at the end of the shift, gives you the empty time per conveyor and per line.
No hot air
What works today and what is tailored
Available today
- Control room with stoppages and their reason, and the shift OEE.
- Status and count sensors on the machine.
- Kiosk where the operator logs the stoppage and its cause.
What already works is covered in production control.
Tailored: we install and test it at your plant
- Camera above the conveyor that detects an empty conveyor in real time.
- Empty time per conveyor, line and shift.
- If a presence sensor on the conveyor is enough, we fit a sensor: it is simpler.
- GPU server at your plant or in Europe.
Before installing a camera
Cameras on the plant floor, with clear rules
A camera at work comes with rules. We explain how we approach it and what you need to do, so you can review it with your adviser from the outset.
How we approach it
- It detects the station, the conveyor or the area, not the person.
- No facial recognition: the system does not know who anyone is.
- No ranking or scoring of workers, and no comparing one with another.
- No inferring emotions: at work this is prohibited under Article 5 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, except for medical or safety reasons.
- No sound and no cameras in changing rooms, toilets or canteens.
- Images are processed on your own server, at the plant or in Europe, and are stored only briefly. What is kept are alerts and figures.
What's down to you, and we'll review it with you
- Inform the workforce in advance, expressly, clearly and concisely, and their representatives if there are any (art. 89 of Organic Law 3/2018).
- If there is a works council, its prior report on work organisation and control systems and the information on algorithms or AI systems that affect working conditions (art. 64 of the Workers' Statute).
- Carry out the data protection impact assessment where applicable (art. 35 GDPR).
- Watch the purpose: an AI system for monitoring and evaluating the performance and behaviour of people at work is considered high-risk (Annex III of the Regulation). That is why we don't set it up that way.
LOPDGDD art. 89ET art. 20.3 and 64GDPR art. 35Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 art. 5 and Annex III
We review it with you and with your employment and data protection adviser. This is not legal advice or a guarantee of compliance: every plant is different. We cover it in more detail in Cameras and AI in the factory: what the law allows in Spain.
How we test it
One line first, and then you decide
We choose one line
The one that loses the most material or the one that stops the most. We look at the belts and where the camera would fit.
Pilot with real product
We test it with your lettuce, your broccoli or whatever you run, with whatever light and humidity there is.
We tune and expand
We pin down how empty "empty" really is, remove false alarms and take the system to other lines.
Frequently asked questions
What people usually ask us
Does it work for other products?
Yes, but it is calibrated for each one. A belt with lettuce and a belt with boxes don't look the same. That is why the pilot is done with your product.
What if I already have sensors on the belts?
We can use them. A presence sensor works too and is simpler. A camera is justified when you need to see more than presence.
Do you have to stop the line to install it?
The cameras are placed outside the product's path. Depending on the line, fitting them may call for a short stop, and we plan it with you.
How much empty time is a problem?
You decide, based on your line. We give you the measurement: how much, when and on which belt.
Keep reading
AI for factories
All use cases
The twenty-odd use cases, by plant area and with their label.
ReadQuality
Quality control with machine vision
Defects, labels and real counting with a fixed camera.
ReadBlog
Empty belts: how to measure the time your line runs with no product
How it is measured, what is done with the data and which mistakes to avoid.
ReadBudget-friendly, no obligation
Tell us about your line and we'll tell you what we'd build
A short video call to understand what is stopping you, where and why. Then a written proposal setting out what we would do, where the AI would run and what it would cost. No obligation.