Author : Zaw Zaw Htet

Summary : Citrus is one of important fruits in Myanmar and its annual production reached
353,050 metric tons in 2015. From 2009 to 2015, Myanmar's average growth rate for the
citrus production is 3 % per year. In this study, a laboratory scale sorting machine for
mandarin orange was developed. The system consisted of a belt conveyor, a webcam
located in a lighting chamber, a feeding channel with receiving tray, and a computer with
MSS software.

Results of static test show that the orientation of mandarin orange with respect to
the camera did not affect the software's ability to analyze images correctly. The software
achieved 93.25 % in sorting accuracy. In addition, the software evaluated mandarin
orange's equatorial diameter at 98.81% accuracy, while sphericity was evaluated with an
accuracy of 97.00%. The processing time was 0.13 second per fruit.

During dynamic calibration, average system accuracies in terms of classifying
mandarin oranges at different conveyor speeds, 10.25 cms-1, 8.36 cms-1, and 7.50 cms-1
were 92.67 %, 92.67 %, and 90.67 %, respectively. The capacity of the sorting machine
prototype was 1161 fruits per hour at the highest conveyor speed.