Image processing and mechanical design for an automated Persian gum-sorting machine

Persian gum is a native Iranian hydrocolloid obtained from the trunks and branches of the mountain almond tree. Tannin, as an anti-nutritional compound, is one of the components of this gum, and its amount is directly related to the color of the gum. Sorting of this gum based on tannin and subsequent tannin removal of dark gums can increase the use of this native gum in the food and drug industries. To provide a proper solution, in this paper, the image processing approach and mechanical design of an automated sorting machine for Persian gum are presented. Firstly, the mechanical parts of the proposed system are introduced in detail. Then, the designed machine is modeled and assembled in SolidWorks. Likewise, the image processing approach is explained. To validate the image processing results, the amount of tannin was measured experimentally. The experimental results were used to train and validate the proposed color sorting system.