Automatic Brix Measurement for Watermelon Breeding

Sweetness or sugar content, represented by soluble solids contents (SSC), is a vital quality trait in watermelon breeding which can be assessed by the refractive index method. However, sampling watermelon juice out of the pulp is a process that is both labor-intensive and error-prone. In this study,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inApplied sciences Vol. 12; no. 23; p. 12227
Main Authors Huang, Jingjing, Zou, Ting, Hu, Heming, Xiao, Xu, Wang, Zhiwei, Li, Ming, Dai, Sihui
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.12.2022
Subjects
Accuracy
Breeding
Brix
Calibration
Cameras
cutting
Dielectric properties
Error analysis
Fruits
Image analysis
Image processing
Laser range finders
laser rangefinder
Lasers
Methods
Plant breeding
Refractivity
refractometer
Robot arms
Robotics
Spectrum analysis
Sweetness
Three axis
Water melons
watermelon
China
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Summary:Sweetness or sugar content, represented by soluble solids contents (SSC), is a vital quality trait in watermelon breeding which can be assessed by the refractive index method. However, sampling watermelon juice out of the pulp is a process that is both labor-intensive and error-prone. In this study, we developed an automatic SSC measurement system for watermelon breeding to improve efficiency and decrease costs. First, we built an automatic cutting system to cut watermelons into precise halves, in which a laser rangefinder is used to measure the distance from the upper surface of the watermelon to itself, and thus, the diameter is estimated. The experiments showed a high correlation between the estimated diameters and the ground truths, with and . Then, we built an automatic Brix measurement system to obtain the Brix data from a central point on the watermelon’s section, where an image analysis procedure is applied to locate the testing point. This is then transformed to the camera coordination system, and a refractometer is driven by a 3-axis robotic arm to reach the testing point. Brix measurement experiments were conducted using three vertical gaps and four lateral gaps between the probe of the refractometer and the pulp. The result showed that the best parameters were a vertical gap of 4 mm and a lateral gap of 2 mm. The average accuracy reached 98.74%, which indicates that this study has the potential to support watermelon breeding research.
ISSN:2076-3417
2076-3417
DOI:10.3390/app122312227