USE OF INERTIAL PROPERTIES TO ORIENT TOMATOES

作者：Motabar P; Lefcourt A M^*; Tasch U; Kim M S; Rostamian R

来源：Transactions of the ASABE, 2011, 54(2): 517-525.

• Apple
• Inertial effect
• Machine vision
• Orientation
• Tomato

Recent theoretical and experimental results have demonstrated that it is possible to orient quasi-spherical objects such as apples by taking advantage of inertial effects during rotation. In practice, an apple rolled down a track consisting of two parallel rails tends to move to an orientation in which the stem/calyx axis is parallel to the plane of the track and perpendicular to the direction of travel as angular velocity increases. In this study, orientation tests were conducted using hothouse, globe, and plum tomatoes to demonstrate that quasi-spherical produce other than apples could be oriented using inertial effects. In addition, to allow testing of theoretical predictions regarding effects of shape on the orientation process, the three tomato cultivars were selected to correspond to the three shape classes used to for theoretical analyses: elongated, spherical, and squat. Single-pass and three-pass orientation rates for hothouse and plum tomatoes were about 90% and 100%, respectively. For the globe tomatoes, which tended to be "perfectly" spherical and which had uniform internal density distributions, three-pass orientation rates approached 90%. These results support the theoretical finding that it would be relatively easy to orient elongated and squat objects, and more difficult to orient spherical objects. In conclusion, rolling quasi-spherical produce down tracks consisting of two parallel rails is a commercially viable method for orienting such produce for imaging.

• 出版日期2011-4