Designing, Optimizing, and Validating a Low-Cost, Multi-Purpose, Automatic System-Based RGB Color Sensor for Sorting Fruits

Abdallah E. Elwakeel (), Yasser S. A. Mazrou, Aml A. Tantawy, Abdelaziz M. Okasha, Adel H. Elmetwalli, Salah Elsayed and Abeer H. Makhlouf
Additional contact information
Abdallah E. Elwakeel: Agricultural Engineering Department, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Aswan University, Aswan 81528, Egypt
Yasser S. A. Mazrou: Applied College, Muhayil Asir, King Khalid University, Abha 62587, Saudi Arabia
Aml A. Tantawy: Food Science and Technology Department, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Aswan University, Aswan 81528, Egypt
Abdelaziz M. Okasha: Department of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr El-Sheikh 33516, Egypt
Adel H. Elmetwalli: Agricultural Engineering Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Tanta University, Tanta 31527, Egypt
Salah Elsayed: Agricultural Engineering, Evaluation of Natural Resources Department, Environmental Studies and Research Institute, University of Sadat City, Sadat City 32897, Egypt
Abeer H. Makhlouf: Department of Agricultural Botany, Faculty of Agriculture, Minufiya University, Shibin El-Kom 32511, Egypt

Agriculture, 2023, vol. 13, issue 9, 1-19

Abstract: The use of automatic systems in the agriculture sector enhances product quality and the country’s economy. The method used to sort fruits and vegetables has a remarkable impact on the export market and quality assessment. Although manual sorting and grading can be performed easily, it is inconsistent, time-consuming, expensive, and highly influenced by the surrounding environment. In this regard, this study aimed to design and optimize the performance of a low-cost, multi-purpose, automatic RGB color-based sensor for sorting fruits. The proposed automatic color sorting system consists of hardware components including a machine frame, belt and pulleys, conveyor belt, scanning zone, plastic boxes, electric components (stepper motors, RGB color sensors, Arduino Mega, motor drivers), and software components (Arduino IDE version 2.2.1 and C++). Calibration was performed for the light intensity sensor to measure the light intensity inside the scanning zone, the conveyor speed sensor, and the RGB color sensors by testing the RGB color channels. The sensor, the height, conveyor belt color, and light intensity should be carefully adjusted to ensure a high performance of the color-based sorting system. The results showed that the appropriate sensor height ranged from 15 to 30 mm, the optimum color of the conveyor belt was black, and scanning the objects at a light intensity of 25 lux achieved the best output signals. The RGB color sensors achieved an analytical performance similar to that obtained with manual sorting without requiring the use of computers for image processing like other automatic sorting systems do in order to gather RGB data.

Keywords: Arduino; color sensor; Internet of Things (IoT); machine vision; RGB; sorting and grading; TCS3200 smart monitoring (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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