PartStar ----------- An open-source robot kit for sorting hardware and other small parts. As an inventor with a small workshop, I often find myself with large bins of unsorted hardware: screws, bolts, nuts, resistors, etc. I aim to use an off-the-shelf webcam and some simple robotics to create a small-part hardware sorting machine. Users of this device can toss unsorted hardware into the hopper, and expect the robot to sort the hardware on user-specified criteria (a user-supplied computer will perform the computer-vision tasks and control the robot firmware.) Furthermore, it should be easy to train the device on new parts. Characteristics of new parts are shared through a public hosted database, so that the robot's ability to distinguish among commonly presented parts improves over time. The name is a play on "CoinStar," which performs the same function for coins. I don't know if that's "confusingly similar" enough to want to change the name. Your input is welcome!