Abstract
Sericulture is traditionally a labor-intensive rural-based industry. In modern contexts, the development of process automation faces new challenges related to quality and efficiency. During the silkworm farming life cycle, a common issue is represented by the gender classification of the cocoons. Improper cocoon separation negatively affects quantity and quality of the yield resulting in disruptive bottlenecks for the productivity. To tackle this issue, this paper proposes a multi sensor system for silkworm cocoons gender classification and separation. Utilizing a load sensor and a digital camera, the system acquires weight and digital images from individual silkworm cocoons. An image processing procedure is then applied to extract significant shape-related features from each image instance, which, combined with the weight data, are provided as inputs to train a Support Vector Machine-based pattern classifier for gender classification. Subsequently, an air blower mechanism and a conveyor system sort the cocoons into their respective bins. The developed system was trained and tested on two different types of silkworm cocoons breeds, respectively CSR2 and Pure Mysore. The system performances are finally discussed in terms of accuracy, robustness and computation time.
Highlights
Silk is the most distinguished textile in the world
Taking into account literature and industrial practice gaps, this paper presents the design and development of a novel non-destructive multi-sensor-based system to classify silkworm cocoons according to their gender
The performance assessment of the Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier is carried out using the hold-out method [33], where the labelled training set is used in training the classifier to create an optimal model
Summary
Silk is the most distinguished textile in the world. It has a natural luster and is popularly known as the “Queen of Textiles” [1]. The silkworm life cycle has four stages of development, respectively egg, larva, pupa, and adult moth (Figure 1a). The egg hatches and emerges out as a larva ( called a caterpillar), which feeds on mulberry leaves and grows for a period of 4 weeks. After 3 weeks, the chrysalis emerges from the cocoon as a moth, it mates, and the female lays eggs permitting the life cycle to restart. Among these four stages, cocoons are of commercial importance since a continuous
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