Segregation of oil palm fruit ripeness using color sensor

Abstract

Oil palm is an important industry that has contributed to income and support to the economic sector especially for Malaysia and Indonesia. However, most of the equipment in the oil palm industry is still operated manually. This work developed a system to separate bunches of oil palm fruit using color sensors according to maturity level. Fruit color plays a decisive point in determining fruit maturity. Here, a specific threshold point of red green blue (RGB) was obtained for the determination of the maturity level of oil palm fruit. Point values of < 120, 120 < x < 150 and > 150 represent the maturity levels of unripe, under ripe and ripe, respectively. This paper is the first to report the RGB points for use in the development of automated oil palm segregation system in the oil palm plantation industry. Thus, this paper will pave the way in producing an accurate and reliable oil palm separation system, which in turn has a positive effect in reducing human error. In the future, a set of sensors is proposed to detect a bunch of the oil palm fruits. This further can speed up the segregation process and more suitable for adaptation to the industry.