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Potential for Automated Systems to Monitor Drying of Agricultural Products Using Optical Scattering

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Intelligent Robotics and Applications (ICIRA 2016)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 9835))

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Abstract

Drying of agricultural products is a critical and energy-intensive processing step in the production of many foodstuffs. During convective drying, products are highly susceptible to thermal damage. In recent years, novel techniques have been established based on optical scattering due to the interaction of light with organic materials. The presented research investigated this approach using vis/NIR wavelengths to observe changes of quality parameters during drying of foodstuffs. The method was proven useful to monitor changes in moisture, color, and texture in a variety of products such as apple, mango, papaya, litchi, and bell pepper. Although many applications have been confirmed, additional hardware and software aspects still need to be refined. Optical scattering shows strong potential for implementation as a non-destructive method for in-line control of product qualities during industrial drying processes. A robotic prototype should be developed that is capable of automated measurement of agricultural products during drying. Optimization of product quality and prevention of energy waste by over-drying are among the potential impacts of the developed technology.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Agricultural Engineering (440e), Tropics and Subtropics Group, Universität Hohenheim, 70599, Stuttgart, Germany

    Marcus Nagle, Giuseppe Romano, Patchimaporn Udomkun, Dimitrios Argyropoulos & Joachim Müller

  2. Research Centre for Agricultural and Forestry, 39040, Ora/Auer, Italy

    Giuseppe Romano

  3. International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo

    Patchimaporn Udomkun

Authors
  1. Marcus Nagle
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  2. Giuseppe Romano
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  3. Patchimaporn Udomkun
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  4. Dimitrios Argyropoulos
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  5. Joachim Müller
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marcus Nagle .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Tokyo Metropolitan University , Tokyo, Japan

    Naoyuki Kubota

  2. Kyushu University , Fukuoka, Japan

    Kazuo Kiguchi

  3. University of Portsmouth , Portsmouth, United Kingdom

    Honghai Liu

  4. Tokyo Metropolitan University , Tokyo, Japan

    Takenori Obo

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Nagle, M., Romano, G., Udomkun, P., Argyropoulos, D., Müller, J. (2016). Potential for Automated Systems to Monitor Drying of Agricultural Products Using Optical Scattering. In: Kubota, N., Kiguchi, K., Liu, H., Obo, T. (eds) Intelligent Robotics and Applications. ICIRA 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9835. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43518-3_31

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43518-3_31

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-43517-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-43518-3

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