Research and develop a strawberry color sorting machine using Image Processing techniques.

Abstract

The objective of this is to research and develop the strawberry sorter by using image processing technology. The machine size is 1,325 x 3,000 x 1,400 mm,  a  camera’s resolution 752 x 480 pixels is used for color detecting and IV-H1 software is used for image analyzing.  The sorting system is automatically operated by PLC programmed control. The machine capable for sorting 4 types of strawberry’s color as white, pink, red and dark red. The test was done at 0.05, 0.08 and 0.1 ms^-1 of sorting speed, the result showed the good condition for strawberry grading at 0.05 ms^-1. The average of sorting accuracy was 93.23%, average working capacity was 3,214 fruits hour^-1, comparing with manual grading it is 2.15 times faster. The manual grading capacity was 1,494 fruits hour^-1. The machine price is 150,000 THB, the operation time is 7 years and the break-even point is 4.81 years.