Abstract
Among palm oil millers, the ripeness of oil palm Fresh Fruit Bunch (FFB) is determined through visual inspection. To increase the productivity of the millers, many researchers have proposed with a new detection method to replace the conventional one. The sensitivity of such a sensor plays a crucial role in determining the effectiveness of the method. In our preliminary study a novel oil palm fruit sensor to detect the maturity of oil palm fruit bunches is proposed. The design of the proposed air coil sensor based on an inductive sensor is further investigated to improve its sensitivity. This paper investigates the results pertaining to the effects of the air coil structure of an oil palm fruit sensor, taking consideration of the used copper wire diameter ranging from 0.10 mm to 0.18 mm with 60 turns. The flat-type shape of air coil was used on twenty samples of fruitlets from two categories, namely ripe and unripe. Samples are tested with frequencies ranging from 20 Hz to 120 MHz. The sensitivity of the sensor between air to fruitlet samples increases as the coil diameter increases. As for the sensitivity differences between ripe and unripe samples, the 5 mm air coil length with the 0.12 mm coil diameter provides the highest percentage difference between samples and it is amongst the highest deviation value between samples. The result from this study is important to improve the sensitivity of the inductive oil palm fruit sensor mainly with regards to the design of the air coil structure. The efficiency of the sensor to determine the maturity of the oil palm FFB and the ripening process of the fruitlet could further be enhanced.
Highlights
The quality of oil palm fruits is categorized based on the texture, shape and color of the fruit [1]
This paper presents an investigation on the effects of air coil structure, mainly the air coil length and coil diameter, on the sensitivity of the oil palm fruit sensor
The sensitivity of the oil palm fruit sensor is looking into two aspects, the sensitivity differences between air and fruitlet samples and the sensitivity differences between ripe and unripe fruitlets
Summary
The quality of oil palm fruits is categorized based on the texture, shape and color of the fruit [1]. Another method used by researchers is the assessment using the RGB space This oil palm grading method uses spectral analysis based on the different wavelengths of red, green and blue color of the image [19,20]. The changes between oil and moisture content in the oil palm FFBs are observed based on the differences in their spin-spin relaxation times and significant results are obtained This method requires the usage of complicated and expensive equipment. An inductive concept non-destructive grading method is proposed in this research work, based on the moisture content of the oil palm fruit. The result from the study should be useful for future research in designing an oil palm ripeness sensor based on the inductive concept
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