Estimation of the Constituent Properties of Red Delicious Apples Using a Hybrid of Artificial Neural Networks and Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm

Yousef Abbaspour-Gilandeh,Sajad Sabzi,José Miguel Molina-Martínez,José Luis Hernández-Hernández,Brahim Benmouna,Ginés García-Mateos

doi:10.3390/agronomy10020267

Abstract

Non-destructive estimation of the constituent properties of fruits and vegetables has led to a dramatic change in the agriculture and food industry, allowing accurate and efficient sorting of the products based on their internal properties. Therefore, the present study utilized visible (VIS) and near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy data in the range from 200 to 1100 nm for the estimation of several properties of Red Delicious apples, namely Brix minus acid (BrimA), firmness, acidity and starch content, using a hybrid of Artificial Neural Networks and Artificial Bee Colony (ANN–ABC) algorithm. Furthermore, the hybrid Artificial Neural Network–Particle Swarm Optimization (ANN–PSO) algorithm was utilized to select the most effective properties to estimate these characteristics. The results indicated that there are different peaks within this spectral range, and the spectral range for each peak gives different results. To ensure the stability of the proposed method, 1000 replications were performed for each estimate. The highest coefficients of determination, R2, for estimating the studied properties among the 1000 replicates were 0.898 for BrimA, 0.8 for firmness, 0.825 for acidity and 0.973 for starch content. The selection of the most effective wavelengths for estimating the properties produced five effective wavelengths for BrimA, nine for firmness, seven for acidity and five for starch content. In this case, the best R2 of the hybrid ANN–ABC among the 1000 iterations were 0.828, 0.738, 0.9 and 0.923, respectively.

Highlights

The importance of fruit sorting and grading is increasing in the agro-industry and global economy.The classification of fruits based on their internal and external qualitative features enables intelligent management at the different stages of fruit distribution and processing [1]
The results indicated that near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and mid-infrared spectroscopy (MIRS) produced the best Partial Least Square Regression (PLSR) models for predicting orange firmness, with Pearson Correlation Coefficients (PCC) of 0.92 and 0.84, respectively
Since the most important purpose of the present study was the non-destructive estimation of dates, four stages were planned for the data collection

Summary

Introduction

The importance of fruit sorting and grading is increasing in the agro-industry and global economy. The classification of fruits based on their internal and external qualitative features enables intelligent management at the different stages of fruit distribution and processing [1]. The appearance, color, size and absence of defects on fruits are some of the most important qualitative characteristics based on external fruit properties [2]. The most important internal or constituent properties, which attract buyers, include Soluble Solids Content (SSC), Titratable Acidity (TA) and the ratio of Soluble Solids Content to Titratable Acidity [3,4,5,6].

Methods

Results

Conclusion