The Detection of Spoiled Fruits on a Conveyor Belt Using Image Processing Techniques and OPC Server Software

Abstract

Quality plays a key role in the marketing of vegetables and fruits. There is a reason that the agricultural products you see in the store usually aren’t rotten. Someone at a sorting facility has already looked over all the products coming in from the fields, and taken out the spoiled ones. This method does not exactly meet the standards of quality and it causes time and labour force loss. Moreover, it has seen that the use of conveyor belt systems are increasing rapidly in today’s industry. These systems, designed to meet the developing needs of the industry, are used to categorize objects with different characteristics. This research was conducted to develop a system for detecting the rottenness on apples on a conveyor belt using image processing techniques, PLC and OPC server. Morphological image processing techniques were used for detecting spots or rottenness emerged on apples and Matlab software was used for image processing. Image processing algorithm developed to detect the characteristics of the apples. Overall conveyor belt system was controlled by PLC. OPC server was used for communication between image processing part and controller part. In this study; image processing algorithm, OPC server and PLC algorithm were tested in real time and results were studied.