Apple Fruit Quality Detector Using Fiber Optics and Color Sensor

Fruits are a rich source of vitamins and minerals and also have fiber content. Fruit ripeness detection has been playing an important role in the production industry as it plays a prominent role during harvesting. It has to be performed in a nondestructive manner. Due to the considerable amount of water and vitamins, fruits are agricultural products most vulnerable to decay and spoilage. In this letter, a portable setup using a color sensor integrated with an optical method has been developed to detect the quality of apples. The difference in the amount of light reflected by ripe and unripe apples is taken into account to determine the ripeness. The portable instrument developed calculates the amount of light reflected from the apple samples using optical fiber and color sensor reliably, which is then used to differentiate between ripe and unripe fruits using a decision tree classifier as the amount of light absorbed by ripe and unripe fruits are proved to vary always.