Rapid ripening stage classification and dry matter prediction of durian pulp using a pushbroom near infrared hyperspectral imaging system

This research examined the potential of a pushbroom near infrared hyperspectral imaging (NIR-HSI) system (900–1600 nm) for ripening stage (unripe, ripe, and overripe) classification based on the days after anthesis (DAA) and dry matter (DM) prediction of durian pulp. The performance of five supervised machine learning classifiers was compared including support vector machines (SVM), random forest (RF), linear discriminant analysis (LDA) partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), and k-nearest neighbors (kNN) for the ripening stage classification and a partial least squares regression (PLSR) model was developed for the DM prediction. The classification and regression models were developed and compared using the full and selected wavelengths by genetic algorithms (GA) and principal component analysis (PCA). For classification, LDA showed the best result with a test accuracy of 100% for both full wavelength and selected 135 wavelengths by GA. A total of 11 wavelengths selected from PCA achieved a test accuracy of 93.6% by LDA. The PLSR models predicted the DM with the coefficient of determination of prediction (Rp2) greater than 0.80 and a root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) less than 1.6%. The results show that NIR-HSI has the potential to identify ripeness correctly, predict the DM and visualize the spatial distribution of durian pulp. This approach can be implemented in the packaging firms to solve the problems related to uneven ripeness and to inspect the quality of durian based on DM content.