Machine learning based classification of ripening and decay stages of Mango (Mangifera indica L.) cv. Tom EJC

Tom EJC is a variety of Mango grown in tropical countries like Sri Lanka and India which has a very large demand and hence expensive. From the early stage of ripening, until the senescence stage, the process takes around 10–14 days. The fruit shows a yellowish color starting from the very early stage of ripening, throughout the period until it reaches the senescence stage. Unlike the other Mango varieties, it is difficult for a regular customer to determine the stage of ripening of the Tom EJC fruit, by observation. This paper focuses towards developing a vision-based classifier to rapidly identify ripening and decay stages of Tom EJC mango using surface image captures. A dataset of Tom EJC mango images was collated at different maturity levels. A Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) is proposed and tested using over 6000 Tom EJC images. The proposed model is shown to have a 76% testing accuracy in identifying four stages of maturity.