Non-destructive robotic sorting of cracked pistachio using deep learning.

Pistachio, an agricultural product, is considered one of the guilt-free snacks due to its nutritional content, taste, and its health benefits. Usually, when it is consumed as a snack, in-shell pistachios are more desirable, whereas pistachios without their shell are ordinarily used for food preparation. One parameter important for pistachios sold as a snack is whether their shell is open. In pistachio processing plants, closed-shelled pistachios are separated with manual labor. There also exists an automated method called pin-picker machines, but as these machines harm pistachio kernels, they are undesirable. This paper offers a method to separate open-shelled pistachios from closed-shelled pistachios in an unharmful method. This method is done by using a deep learning-based object detection algorithm. In order to sort pistachios physically, a gripper and a conveyor system equipped Cartesian manipulator has been developed. In addition, a double-camera configuration is used. The key function of a double-camera configuration...