Research and development of strawberry quality sorting machine with image processing

Abstract

The objective of this research was to research and develop a strawberry quality sorting machine with image processing. The machine size is 1.60 x 4.0 x 1.5 meters. The prototype sorting strawberry fruit sizes into 5 grades according to the fruit grade standards of the Royal Project Foundation and sorting misshapen fruits, bruised, over ripe. This research wrote an image processing program using LabVIEW version 2018, taking pictures of strawberries while sorting, uses a webcam with a resolution of 640 x 320 pixels. The mechanism for sorting strawberries into baskets uses air blowing. The sorting system is automatically operated by PLC programmed control. The test was done at 0.08, 0.10 and 0.13 m s-1 of belt conveyor speed, the result showed the good condition for strawberry grading at 0.08 m s-1. The average of sorting accuracy was 93.78 %, average working capacity was 3,273 fruits hour-1, comparing with manual grading it is 2.17 times faster. Sorted strawberries by machine and manual labor showed no damage to the fruit. The machine cost is 250,000 baht, the operation time is 7 years and the break-even point is 1.94 years.