Rician k-Factors-Based Sensor for Fruit Classification by Maturity Stage

Abstract

This paper has proposed a non-destructive, non-invasive sensor system for classifying durian fruits according to the maturity stages. The design of the sensor system has adopted the principle of wireless communications in which the Rician k-factors were utilized to determine the fruit maturity. The sensor is operable at the 915 MHz frequency. The simulation and experimental results revealed that the export grade durian had the higher reflected wave-based k-factors but lower scattered wave-based k-factors, when compared with the immature durian. The findings also showed that the k-factor thresholds for the reflected and scattered waves of 3 ×104 and 128 could achieve an accuracy rate of as high as 92.7% with regard to the durian maturity.