MECHANIZATION IN GRADING AND

SORTING OF CACAO BEANS

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Cocoa (Theobroma cacao) is one of the important cash crops grown in the world today.

Due to its high export earnings, cocoa production has been a supporting factor for the economy

of producing countries. It is also a key import commodity for consuming countries due to its

economic value and its various uses. [1]

Cacao plants, which first made it to Philippine shores in 1670 through a Spanish friar, is

currently one of the country’s key crops with a huge potential in the world market. The

Philippines produces more than 10,000 metric tons of cacao per year and exports about $6

million worth to the international market. The country, however, imports more than $100 million

worth of cacao from other cocoa-producing countries.[2]

The cocoa fruit has useful applications in many industries. The beans extracted from the

cocoa pod is used to produce soft drinks, cocoa powder, vinegar, alcoholic beverages and
chocolate. More than a millennium after the discovery of cocoa, Chocolate is now a lucrative

business. The United States of America alone, the world's biggest consumer, consumes about 1

to 1.4 million tonnes of chocolate every year. Chocolate also forms part of the largest share of

the global trade, which is estimated to be about $80 million. It is used as a product on its own or

combined with other ingredients to form confectionery products. Cocoa powder can be used as

an ingredient in almost any foodstuff. For example, it is used in chocolate flavoured drinks,

chocolate flavoured desserts such as ice creams, chocolate spreads and sauces, and cakes and

biscuits. [3]

The cocoa tree whose fruit consists of pods each of which contains about 35 seeds

depending to the size and variety of cacao. The global importance of cocoa has been embraced

by Philippines including Cagayan Valley. According to the Department of Agriculture, cocoa is

rated among the major products that is still under the process of developing here in Cagayan

Valley. Cocoa continues to be a very important cash crop that has come under critical scrutiny in

terms of the concentrations of its potential contaminating-compounds. Again, due to cocoa’s

ability to drive national economies, cocoa-producing municipality continue to strive to gain

greater acceptance in the economy of Philippines.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Manual grading and sorting is based on traditional visual quality inspection performed by

human, which is tedious, time-consuming, expensive, slow and non-consistent. It has become

increasingly difficult to hire personnel who are adequately trained and willing to undertake the

tedious task of inspection.

 1.3 Objectives of the Study

The general objective of this study is to develop a machine in processing cacao beans that

will reduce the time consuming process and to minimize human labour.

Specific Objectives:

 To develop a machine that will grade and sort cacao beans.

 To determine if the cacao bean is defective or good.

 To determine the efficiency of the machine in grading and sorting cacao beans over manual

processing.

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The findings of this study will result in the benefit of the society specially the cacao

producers considering the faster and effective process in grading and sorting of cacao is the one

of the priority. Not only will it eliminate the chances human error it also lessens the risk of

production lost due to poor quality of cacao beans. The greater the demand for cacao beans

justifies the need for a more effective way of grading and sorting the cacao beans reducing the

risk of unpolished cacao beans. Mechanizing the most effective way of grading the cacao beans

will lessen the chances of errors in sorting. This study has a great help to the following:
To the Cacao Producers: This study can give a solution about the problems and worries on how

to effectively grade and sort their cacao beans after drying.

Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Negosyo Center Business Council (NCBC): This

study will be a great help to DTI and NCBC to showcase the machine and to insight the ideas

that they can share during forums and seminars to help the NCBC attendees.

The CSU University, Faculty and Students: This study will serve as a guide on how to develop a

machine for grading and sorting of cacao producers for both Professors and Students.

Future Researchers: This study will add to the future collection of reference materials and

perhaps merit their interest in conducting deeper studies regarding different approach and

making them gain knowledge or insights. It gives additional information about the topic.

1.5 Limitation of the Study

The proposed project’s limitation is that the beans must be dried before placing into the

grading and sorting machine. The study was only limited to the demonstration of the efficiency

and functionality of the machine. These two will be tested through the comparison of the

classified and graded result of the human expert (farmer) to the result of the machine. The

proposed project’s functionality doesn`t operate during power interruption and also if the user

don’t have a proper knowledge how to operate the machine.

1.6 Definition of Terms

 Sorting – operation intended to put in a certain place or rank

 Grading – a standard of beans qualities.

 Infested Bean– a cocoa bean with the internal parts of which contains insects, or has been

attacked by insects, which has caused damage.

 Fragments– an incomplete part, broken part or piece of cacao beans

 Broken Beans – a cocoa bean of which a fragment is missing, the missing part being

equivalent to less than half of the bean.

 Cash crop– agricultural crop which is grown for sale to return a profit

 Cocoa beans – the seed of the cocoa fruit which is only cacao bean once it is removed

from the pod.

 Cocoa pod – the protective outer cover of cocoa fruit.

 Contaminated beans – a cocoa bean which is contaminated by odours or flavours, or by

dust from other products.

 Damaged beans – physically or mechanically damaged beans.

 Germinated beans – a cocoa bean with the shell pierced, slit or broken by the growth of

seed germ.

 Defective beans - cocoa beans which are internally moldy, insect-damaged or insect

infested and germinated beans.

 Lucrative – producing a great deal of profit.

 Foreign matter – any substance other than cocoa bean and residue.

 Scrutiny – careful and detailed examination

 CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter recounts literature on studies done by other researchers, publications, and journals

relevant to the current study. Research has been carried out to study what work has been done so

far in this area of mechanization of cacao grading and sorting. Sorting and grading will enhance

bean quality. When the beans have completely dried, they are sorted and grades to remove flat,

salty, black, moldy, small, double beans and beans with insect damage.[4] Beans are usually

graded based on proportion of defective beans indicated by the Philippine National Standards for

Cacao or Cacao Beans. These processing and Manufacturing guidelines successfully ensure

quality before they are shipped or handles.[5]

2.1 SORTING OF DRIED CACAO BEANS

Sorting of products in an industry is a tedious industrial process, which is generally

carried out manually. Continuous manual sorting creates quality consistency issues. Segregation

based on different characteristics like weight, colour, type require different equipment for

weighing and then separating. We have proposed an efficient method which uses load cell,

inductive sensor and TCS 230 colour sensor for identifying and segregating on the basis of

weight, colour and type (metal or non-metal) of object and Siemens 300 Series PLC to control

the overall process of sorting two types of objects. The system rejects and discards objects that

are not of required characteristics by pushing them out of conveyor line using a flipper

mechanism. A circular container, having three partitions is used to collect objects of three

different colours. Two conveyor belts were used, each controlled by separate DC motors. The
first belt is for placing the product to be analyzed by the load cell and inductive sensor, which

also contains a colour sensor at the end for one type of segregated object and the second belt also

has a colour sensor for the components separated by the load cell and inductive sensor.[6]

Sorting systems based on optical methods have the potential to rapidly detect and

physically remove seeds severely contaminated by fungi, or infested internally by insect larvae

or pupae. Thus, the literature on sorting systems based on optical methods for detecting and

sorting seeds with these attributes was reviewed. Sorting indices based on wavelengths useful for

detecting these attributes were emphasized. Surface characteristics of seeds, like discoloration

caused by fungi, are generally detectable in the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum,

whereas internal attributes are detectable in the near-infrared range. The spectral differences

between sound and infested seeds are usually subtle, but full-spectrum and two-wavelength

classification models have succeeded in detecting and classifying seeds based on these attributes.

For high sorting accuracies, wavelength identification and proper selection of a sorting criterion

are important. Color, chitin, ergosterol, or hydrolysis of triglycerides have been identified as

indicators of seed fungal contamination whereas chitin, protein, phenolic compounds, or changes

in starch have been useful indicators of internal insects in seeds.[7]

The color sorting of grains up until the 1990s was performed manually. Experimental

work on machine grading of grains was done under laboratory conditions. In 1985 an automatic

bruise detection system was proposed by Taylor. But the size of the machines is very huge more

power consuming and having very high cost. The images are vectorial, lighting conditions this

can be overcome by using mini2440 FriendlyARM9 kit. For scientific work, the camera and
lighting should be calibrated. The color sorting system using arm processor on wince

environment. This system consists of 3 main sections: electric control system; image processing

system; grains sorting mechanism. Picking of grains is achieved through pick-up arm drive, for

color sorting the image processing technique is used. The wince operating system is installed on

ARM processor. The image processing and color sorting is done using CMOS camera and sorted

color will be picked. In 1985 an automatic bruise detection system was proposed by Taylor. This

series machines are equipped with 512 pixel camera and is capable of providing more quality

output in less number of channels. This series is available in two specifications like 90 channels

and 120 Channels. This machine is optimum for rice mills of capacity 1 to 2 tons output per

hour. The other commodities that can be sorted using CHROMA are Little Millet (Bagaur),

Cluster Bean (Guargum), Sugar, Coriander, Gum etc. It his machine is designed unique with the

powerful software that makes billions of right decisions to identify shape and size of defect, spot

defect and watershed algorithm to arrive the area of every product pass through our high tech

CCD camera in a mille second.[8]

Sorting is one of the important tasks in production line. Due to high turnover among

sorting line it is difficult to achieve consistency in object sorting process. As a result, an

automated system for sorting is greatly needed to replace manual sorting system. In this paper we

have proposed automated sorting system which uses Raspberry Pi 2 (Raspbian Operating

System), USB camera for colour detection of objects. We use Open CV (Open Source Computer

Vision) to implement colour detection algorithm. Identification and positioning of objects

moving on conveyor belt is performed in industries especially in fruit production line, tomatoes

and passion fruits are sorted based on their size small (S) or medium (M). Used colour of
tomatoes as parameter to decide whether the fruit is ripe or unripe . A robotic arm sorts the

object based on its shape and colour using MATLAB. This arm implemented for pick and place

application. Intelligent object sorting insolent system (IOSIS) uses complex algorithms and it

updates database over internet for monitoring of operation. In all these existing systems colour

detection is performed using MATLAB based on RGB colour model. RGB colour model

represents colour in red(R), green (G) and blue (B) components. Controllers used for sorting are

application specific thus resulting in less flexibility and are comparatively slow. This paper

describes an algorithm that overcomes some of the above mentioned drawbacks. Sorting is often

combined with grading, but in some applications both phases are separated from each other and

the sorting phase is only for removing produce with surface deformities or blemishes and foreign

/ unwanted objects. For size sorting, various types of screens and sieves, with fixed or variable

apertures, can be used. The screens may be stationary, rotating or vibrating. Shape sorting can be

accomplished manually or mechanically with machines, for example, a belt or roller-sorter.

Weight sorting is a very accurate method and is therefore used for more valuable fruits. Image

processing is used to sort fruits on the basis of length, diameter and appearance, i.e. surface

defects and orientation of fruits on a conveyor. Color sorting can be applied at high rates using

microprocessor controlled color sorters.[9]

Sorting is a process of arranging the items systematically. This process is required to be

carried out in various fields of daily life. Nowadays there is consumers demand for quality of the

product. In the food industry producing potato chips, sorting of new lot is done to ensure the

quality of raw materials being used in the further process. Sorting parameters may be size, color,

weight etc. Among these, weight is something that we cannot predict or calculate only by visual
inspection, unlike other parameters. The proposed system can be effective in the situations where

weight of the object is the design metric to sort. In the courier companies, charges are incurred

depending upon the weight of the package, there is need to sort the packages on the basis of

weight. The proposed model suggests advancements in the existing methods to enhance

efficiency and reduce sorting time. The model can reduce the monotonous work required to sort

the agricultural products at the market places with added advantages like greater accuracy and

elimination of human errors. Presently, most of the systems used for sorting are based upon the

principles like machine vision, image processing, fuzzy logic, density difference etc. which have

several drawbacks. The machine vision technology can sort fine objects like tablets effectively

but has its own drawbacks like high initial investment and software requirements. The image

processing equipment includes sensors and high resolution cameras which have high cost. Also,

the performance of such systems depends on the lighting conditions of the working environment.

Fuzzy logic involves complex programming which requires lot of expertise. Fully mechanical

systems employ density difference as the sorting parameter which gives inaccuracy and low

efficiency. Some electromechanical systems use proximity sensors along with pneumatic system

for sorting objects. The other systems based on weight demand costly and energy consuming

devices like compressors and pneumatic auxiliaries.[10]

The proposed system is low cost, low power. In this paper object sorting using robotic

arm based on color detection is designed and implemented. Furthermore, the robotic arm is used

to place the sorted object on conveyor belt. Existing sorting method uses a set of different

capacitive, inductive, and optical sensors to differentiate object color. In the proposed system a

mechatronics color sorting system is developed with the image processing technique. Image
processing technique senses the objects captured in real-time by a webcam and then identifies

color and information out of it. This information is processed by image processing technique for

pick-and-place mechanism. The arduino microcontroller sends signal to circuit which drives the

various motors of the robotic arm to grip the object and place it at the specified location. Based

upon the detection, the robotic arm moves to the specified location, releases the object and

comes back to the original position. So, the proposed system will eliminate the monotonous work

done by human and provides greater accuracy and speed in the work.[11]

The shading sorting machine utilizing Arduino is an intriguing and prestigious venture

for techies, who might want to consolidate Electronics, Machine building and programming.

The shading Sorting Machines is utilized for sorting mostly RGB hues. This shading sorting

machine isolates diverse hued questions and characterizes them into individual

compartments/glasses. The shading sorting machine is completely mechanized with the

assistance of Arduino. This electronic task made up of Arduino UNO alongside Arduino UNO

BOB, RGB shading sensor, three servo engines and some plastic channels and tube parts. The

shading sensor is implanted inside the shading sorting area. Shading sensor breaks down and

arranges the RGB hues and gives the relating yield qualities to the RGB hues to the Arduino

UNO. The TCS3200 shading sensor is utilized with shading sorting machine. This sensor goes

about as an immaculate shading sensor for the shading sorting machine.The TCS3200 shading

sensor's PCB module incorporates a TAOS (4 Numbers) and LED control circuit with some

fundamental segments. The heart of the shading sorting machine is Arduino UNO. Really we are

making every one of the associations with the Arduino board. This will downsize the association

complexities and help the general execution of the machine. The RGB shading sensor and all the
servo engines are associated with Arduino. An outside 9-12v supply voltage is utilized for

driving the Arduino and servo engines. This shading sorting machine is a Real Time running

System as per the programming codes.[12]

Sorting of the products in the industry is very difficult task and continuous manual

sorting creates issues. It is very desirable to create a machine that identify the objects and

relocate them if the object meets certain criteria. This paper presents a solution to sort the

coloured objects with the help of the robotic arm. The objects when placed on the conveyor belt

are sorted based on colour sensing and are relocated to specific location. When an object moves

from one location to another on the conveyor belt, the sensors give the input to the

microcontroller which then give the command to the robotic arm to do the task. TCS3200 colour

sensor is used for detection of the colour of the object. DC motors are used to move the conveyor

belt, gripper and the lifter. Arduino Nano microcontroller is used to give the commands. L293D

motor driver is used to drive the motors and LCD display makes the system user friendly. The

conveyor belt (30x9cm) used here consists of two wheels on which the belt moves. There is the

continuous loop of the material over the rotating wheels. One of the wheels called the driver

wheel is powered by the motor and other unpowered wheel is called idler. This leads to the

movement of the conveyor belt that is used to carry the objects over it. The DC motor is used to

control the opening and closing movement of the gripper. The DC motor receives its signal from

the microcontroller for performing the operations. The gripper (2 jaws) is designed specially for

grabbing the objects running on the conveyor belt and dropping on specified locations. The

colour sensor used is TCS3200 Color Sensor which is a complete color detector, including a

TAOS TCS3200 RGB sensor chip and 4 white LEDs. The TCS3200 can detect and measure a
nearly limitless range of visible colors. The TCS3200 has an array of photo detectors, each with

either a red, green, or blue filter, or no filter (clear). Internal to the device is an oscillator which

produces a square-wave output whose frequency is proportional to the intensity of the chosen

color. In this project microcontroller Arduino Nano (ATmega168) is used for motion control and

object detection. The microcontroller works on the set of instructions that are preprogrammed

and stored in the memory. It then takes the instructions from its program and one by one operates

as the instructions and carries the required operations.[13]

2.2 GRADING OF FERMENTED CACAO BEANS

In order to improving fruits’ quality and production efficiency, reduce labor intensity, it

is necessary to research non-destructive automatic detection technology. Fruit non-destructive

detection is the process of detecting fruits’ inside and outside quality without any damage, using

some detecting technology to make evaluation according some standard rules. Nowadays, the

quality of fruit shape, default, color and size and so on cannot evaluated on line by the traditional

methods. With the development of image processing technology and computer software and

hardware, it becomes more attractive to detect fruits’ quality by using vision detecting

technology. At present, most existing fruit quality detecting and grading system have the

disadvantage of low efficiency, low speed of grading, high cost and complexity. So it is

significant to develop high speed and low cost fruit size detecting and grading system. Here two

choices are provided for grading either by color and size. In first case we are going to sort

circular shaped fruits according color and grading is done according to size. The proposed

automated classification and grading system is designed to combine three processes such as
feature extraction, sorting according to color and grading according to size. Software

development is highly important in this color classification system and for finding size of a fruit.

The entire system is designed over MATLAB software to inspect the color and size of the fruit.

Here grading can be categories into four ways Red small, Red big, Green small, Green big. Work

in this paper considered two different fruits apple or tomato and guava having different features

like apple or tomato is red and guava is green and system can sort and grade the fruits according

to different attributes such as color and size. It mainly contains four parts: the system overview,

fruit size detecting and grading, experiments and results, conclusion.[14]

This automated system is designed to overcome the problems of manual techniques; here

the hardware model is designed using conveyor system. In agri- department science, images are

the important source of data and information. To reproduce and report such data, photography

was the only method used in recent years. It is difficult to process or quantify the photographic

data mathematically. The image processing technology circumvents these problems based on the

advances in computers and microelectronics associated with traditional photography. To improve

images from microscopic to the telescopic visual range and offers a scope for their analysis.

Several applications of image processing technology have been developed for the agricultural

operations. These applications involve implementation of the camera based hardware systems or

color scanners for inputting the images. The computer based image processing is undergoing

rapid evolution with ever changing computing systems. The dedicated imaging systems available

in the market, where the user can press a few keys and get the results, are not very versatile and

more important, they have a high price tag on them. The aim of image processing and computer

vision techniques in the food and farming industry.[15]

 Image processing has been widely used for grading of fruits into uniform categories (size,

shape, color and texture, bruises, stem and calyx).Grading is being applied to many fruits and

vegetables including apples, oranges, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, green paper, peaches. In this

section review is made on how different parameters can be used for automatic fruit grading

system. Presented thinning-based algorithm to characterize fruit stems from profile images. In

first iterations of thinning process, thinning algorithms makes skeletons of protrusions. A

modified thinning method can detect and identify size and length of fruit stems or any other

protrusion from binary patterns. Once the stem, or any protrusion from the fruit body, has been

characterized and detected, it has to be located in order to supply this information to the de-

stemming mechanism. The method has been applied to characterize a wide range of fruit stem

shapes. 99% of stems were correctly classified, therefore high accuracy was achieved. To grade

San-Fuji apples, neural network plays significant role to classify apples into five quality classes.

Pixels are obtained from image based on color and are given to the neural network as an input.

Mean color of fruit is obtained from fruit image and grading is done based on fruit mean color,

its variability and availability of diseased pixels and ratio of red color of fruit image. Accuracy is

obtained up to 95% based on global classification rate (70%).[16]

2.3 SORTING AND GRADING OF FERMENTED CACAO BEANS

For the ever-increasing population, losses in handling and processing and the increased

expectation of food products of high quality and safety standards, there is need for the growth of
accurate, fast and objective quality determination of the characteristics of food and agricultural

food products. Computer vision and image analysis, are non-destructive and cost-effective

technique for sorting and grading of agricultural and food products during handling processes

and commercial purposes. Different approaches based on image analysis and processing

identified is related to variety of applications in agricultural and food products.

There is continuous growth in the development of mechanical harvesting system, and the need

for automated inspection, as well as grading systems so that the losses incurred during

harvesting, production and marketing can be minimized. With these, the need arises to not only

grow and harvest a quality crop, but also to pack in a consistent and acceptable manner to gain or

to maintain market share as well as prepare materials, which suits processing operations. These

cannot be achieved without sorting and grading. Sorting and grading of an agricultural and food

products is accomplished based on appearance, texture, colour, shape and sizes. Manual sorting

and grading are based on traditional visual quality inspection performed by human operators,

which is tedious, time-consuming, slow and non-consistent. A cost effective, consistent, superior

speed and accurate sorting can be achieved with machine vision assisted sorting and grading.

Automated sorting and grading had undergone substantial growth in the field of agricultural and

food, in the developed and developing nations because of availability of infrastructures. [17]

In recent years automatic vision based technology has become more potential and more

important to many areas including agricultural fields and food industry. An automatic electronic

vision based system for sorting and grading of fruit like Mango based on their maturity level and

size is discussed here. The application of automatic vision based system, aimed to replace

manual based technique for sorting and grading of fruit as the manual inspection poses problems

in maintaining consistency in grading and uniformity in sorting. To speed up the process as well
as maintain the consistency, uniformity and accuracy, a prototype electronic vision based

automatic mango sorting and grading system using fuzzy logic is discussed. The automated

system collects video image from the CCD camera placed on the top of a conveyer belt carrying

mangoes, then it process the images in order to collect several relevant features which are

sensitive to the maturity level and size of the mango. Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) is used to

estimate the parameters of the individual classes for prediction of maturity. Size of the mango is

calculated from the binary image of the fruit. Finally the fuzzy logic techniques are used for

automatic sorting and grading of mango fruit. [18]

The application of machine vision based system, aimed to replace manual based

technique for grading and sorting of fruit and vegetable. The manual works obtained problems in

maintaining consistency in grading and uniformity in sorting. To speed up the process as well as

maintain the consistency, uniformity and accuracy, a prototype computer vision based automatic

grading and sorting system is developed. The proposed method is implemented by k-means

clustering segmentation and color detection process with strawberry and brinjal. Feature

extraction for various features like Entropy, Mean and standard deviation are calculated. The

main aim of the proposed system is to sort and grade the variety of vegetables like strawberry

and brinjal is implemented using image processing techniques. The simulated version of the

proposed system is developed using MATLAB R 2013 version and desktop application of the

project is developed using MATLAB GUIDE. In principle, Image noise is defined as distinct

pixels which are not similar in appearance with the neighbourhood pixels. Over-segmentation

occurs mainly due to presence of the noise and unimportant fluctuation which produces non real

minima. Main objective of the pre-processing stage is to smooth the original image by removing
the noise effect and enhance the image quality of the strawberry and brinjal by using median

filter. The color detection model is used to show the affected part of the fruit by increasing the

threshold level value. In this process the red, green, and blue band are applied on the affected

fruit image is obtained and then over which the mask like red green and blue is applied. By

increasing threshold level for red mask the affected part show the dark one for strawberry image

these threshold level is 98. Similarly by increasing threshold level for green mask the affected

part show the dark one for brinjal image these threshold level is 70. Image segmentation is

process of partitioning the image into multiple segments. In this process Kmeans clustering

segmentation is used. The purpose of kmeans clustering segmentation is segmenting the defected

part of vegetable and good part of vegetable then find the mean of each cluster. The feature

extraction is done to measure the maturity level and affected part of strawberry and brinjal.

Feature extraction is a method of capturing visual content of an image. The objective of feature

extraction process is to represent raw image in its reduced form to facilitate decision making

process such as pattern classification. Entropy, Mean and Standard deviation used to extract

gradient feature in proposed project. A feature is extracted in order to allow a classifier to

distinguish between diseased part and ripe fruit.[19]

Sorting is the separation of raw materials and/or food slurries into categories on the basis

of shape, size, weight, image and color. Sorting allows the separation of some undesirable

additional material (e.g. leaves, stones) of inappropriate raw material (immature or rotted fruits),

and aims at ensuring that only good quality fruit is preserved and passed through for further

processing. Sorting is the segregation of edible or marketable product into distinct quality

categories on the basis of shape, size, weight, image and color. Sorting of the marketable items is
accomplished by both mechanical equipment (sizes, color sorters) and by manual means (visual

or tactical). Sorting is often combined with grading, but in some applications both phases are

separated from each other and the sorting phase is only for removing produce with surface

deformities or blemishes and foreign / unwanted objects. For size sorting, various types of

screens and sieves, with fixed or variable apertures, can be used. The screens may be stationary,

rotating or vibrating. Shape sorting can be accomplished manually or mechanically with

machines, for example, a belt or roller-sorter. Weight sorting is a very accurate method and is

therefore used for more valuable fruits. Image processing is used to sort fruits on the basis of

length, diameter and appearance, i.e. surface defects and orientation of fruits on a conveyor.

Color sorting can be applied at high rates using microprocessor controlled color sorters. [20]

2.4 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Input Process Output

DRIED CACAO BEANS

SORTED AND
DRIED CACAO GRADING AND SORTING
- GRADED
BEANS USING COLOR SENSOR
MARKETABLE
CLASSIFIED CACAO BEANS CACAO BEANS
ACCORDING TO SIZE

Figure 3.1 Block Diagram

Figure 3.1 shows the block diagram of the system. It shows in the block diagram that the

input (dried cacao beans) will be place on the sorting and drying machine, the cacao beans will

be classified by its sizes and good or defective beans using color sensor, and controllers. After
this process is done, the process cacao beans will go to the different storages depending on each

classification.
 CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY

3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN

The developmental research will be utilized for the development of grading and sorting

of cacao beans. The researchers opted to use a prototype approach for the system to show it’s

functionality on how it will address the problems on manual sorting.

3.2 RESPONDENTS OF THE RESEARCH

The study will be conducted to Cacao Producers and Farmers within Cagayan Valley and

will be implemented at Lasam, Cagayan. The study is focused on developing a machine for

grading and sorting of cacao beans. This mechanization will give the farmers a faster, cost

effective and accurate machine and produce good quality of Cacao Beans.

3.3 RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS

The researchers gathered information from online forums, YouTube tutorials, and blogs

related projects regarding on how the machine will achieve its objective that concerns in using

Arduino. From their imparted knowledge and even opinions, the researchers achieved other ways

to enhance this project as regards with its quality, capability and accuracy compared to

researcher’s view.

3.4 DATA GATHERING

The researchers gathered information through reading from online forums and related

projects regarding on how the system will achieve its objectives. The following instruments will
be used to in the research study in order to gather data and information and to have a complete

knowledge about the drying, grading and sorting process of cacao beans.

 Interview – The researchers conducted an interview and floated questionnaires to

the farmers around Cagayan regarding their experience on how to grade and sort

the cacao beans and to know their opinion and experience on the existing process

that they are doing.

 Internet Surfing – The easiest and fastest way in gathering information related to

the study. The researchers read and retrieve some documents on the internet for

more information relevant to the study. The researchers also watched YouTube

tutorials in order to get codes and to complete the process of the system.

 Surveys – The researchers conduct a survey for those who are and will be

involved of which is of concern of the study. The questionnaires will be explicitly

floated to those operate individuals who process cacao beans.

 Related Literature –The researchers also used old thesis books for them to have

more ideas in improving their thesis project and also to enhance their thesis paper.
3.5 Data Analysis

In this chapter the results of the data analysis are presented. It includes the presentation,

analysis, and interpretation of data that have been gathered from the interviews and

questionnaires distributed to the respondents.

Table 3.1 RESPONDENTS

Business
10
Home
42%
14
58%

Table 3.1 shows the population of the 24 respondents who process cacao in Cagayan.

Accordingly, 10 of them are for business purposes which constitute 42% of the total population

and 14 or 58% of the total population are for home purposes only.
 4

3.5

2.5
Business
2

1.5 Home
1

0.5

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Table 3.2 Mean of Each Questions

Table 3.2 shows the result of the survey question floated to a total of 24 people. In question

number 16, the respondents were asked if they think there is a need for a machine to improve the

grading and the sorting process of cacao beans, 74% of them answered yes because they want

to make the grading and sorting process easier and faster so that they can double their

production.

10
9
8
Number of Respondents

7
6
5 Business
4
home
3
2
1
0
For export For Higher Others
Selling Price
Table 3.3
As seen in Table 3.3, majority of the respondents chose ‘for high selling price’ as the reason why

they grade and sort cacao beans.

4
In Table 3.4, the respondents chose size as the top priority on how they grade and sort cacao

beans. This is their basis to classify its quality for further processing.
PROCEDURE

The block diagram below discussed the process of grading and sorting of cacao beans

Specify Requirements

Design for Grading and Sorting

Machine

Hardware Development

Testing the functionality of Grading

Software Development
& Sorting Machine

Observation

Implementation

Evaluation
 The grading and sorting machine is designed or developed based from the results from

the gathered data. While developing or building the grading and sorting machine, the

mechanization of grading and sorting will be constructed with Arduino and its programming will

be written in Arduino IDE. After the machine is built or developed it is now ready for testing and

adjusting its parts if do not meet the expected output. The Cacao beans are to be fed through the

metal feeder. DC motor is used for feeding the system so as to provide smooth flows of the

beans. The Developers or Researchers will be checked whether the automated process is faster

and better than the manual process.

Materials

Below are the lists of the different components together with its description.

1. DC MOTOR

Motor is a device which transforms the electrical energy into

mechanical energy. The working principle of the motor is the

interaction between the magnetic field and the current to produce a

force within the motor which helps the motor to do work. The motor

principle is basically based on Faraday's Law, which states that, it is the

conservation of electrical and mechanical energy. DC motor is one type

of motor that uses the DC current to convert electrical energy into mechanical energy.

2. CONVEYOR ASSEMBLY

The conveyor consists of motors, rubber belt, and

metal frames. This is the part of the machine where

the beans are placed and is going through the grading

and sorting phase

3. CONTAINER-

This is where the beans will be stored before and after the

grading and sorting process.

SOFTWARE

1. Arduino Compiler
This is the application software used to construct, compile and upload all the program

codes by the controller to perform the desired functionality of the system.

References:

[1] Otomfo, A.T. (2014). “Effect Of Stages of Ripening and Tray Fermentation Method on the Quality of

Cocoa (Theobroma Cacao) Beans”. Pg. 30-30

[2] Adewumi, B. A., & Fatusin, A. B. (2006). “Design , Fabrication and Testing of an Impact Type Hand

Operated Cocoa Pod Breaker”, VIII, 1–12.

[3] Adumako, D., “Non-Traditional Uses of Cocoa in Ghana. Eighth Meeting of the Advisory Group on the

World Cocoa Economy”, 26th-30th June 1995, Yaoundé, Cameroon, Pp.79-85. ICCO, 1995

[4] Pacita U. Juan, Josephine V. Ramos, Ma Regina S. Francisco. “Cacao bean to bar: a cacao growers manual”,

2013

[5] Peace and Equity Foundation. “A primer on PEF’s Priority Commodities: an Industry Study on Cacao”, June

2017

[6] S. V. Rautu, A. P. Shinde, N. R. Darda,A. V.Vaghule, C. B.Meshram, S.S.Sarawade (2017) “Sorting of Objects
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[9] Anagha B. Kulkarni, Pranjali S. Jaisingpure, Dr. Lenina SVB (2017) “Automated Object Sorting Based On
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[10] Yuvraj S. Kumbhar, Chaitrali M. Shete, Omkar M. Kulkarni, Ghansham B. Firame (2017) “Design and
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[11] Shubhangi Wanve, B.G.Gawalwad (2015) “Automatic color object sorting system”

[12] Tushar G. Gaikar, Soham N. Zadokar, Rajendra S. Bhandari (2016) “Object Sorting using Color Sensor and
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[13] Amitesha Sachdeva, Mahesh Gupta, Manish Pandey, Prabham Khandelwal (2017) “Development Of
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[14] Ms.Rupali S.Jadhav1, PROF. S.S.Patil (2013) “A Fruit Quality Management System Based On Image
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[15] Prof. S.M.Shirsath1, Mr. Sumit S. Telang (2017) “Fruit Quality Inspection using Image Processing”

[16] Rashmi Pandey, Sapan Naik, Roma Marfatia (2013) “Image Processing and Machine Learning for
Automated Fruit Grading System”
[17] ”Narendra V G and Hareesh K S (2010) “Prospects Of Computer Vision Automated Grading And Sorting
Systems In Agricultural And Food Products For Quality Evaluation”

[18] C. S. Nandi, B. Tudu and C. Koley (2014) “Machine Vision Based Techniques for Automatic Mango Fruit
Sorting and Grading Based on Maturity Level and Size”

[19] Dr.S.USHA, Dr.M.KARTHIK, R.JENIFER (2017) “Automated Sorting And Grading of Vegetables Using
Image Processing”

[20] Areej Saif El-Deen Muhammad Babiker, Amr Muhammad Zain Ahmad Al-haj, Muhammad Faisal Farah
Muhammad, Razaz El-Fatih El-Faki El-Mutasim (2015) “Design of sorting, and grading system for citrus fruits
based on machine vision”