Designing, Optimizing, and Validating a Low-Cost, Multi-Purpose, Automatic System-Based RGB Color Sensor for Sorting Fruits
, Yasser S. A. Mazrou 2, Aml A. Tantawy 3, Abdelaziz M. Okasha 4, Adel H. Elmetwalli 5, Salah Elsayed 6,7 and Abeer H. Makhlouf 8Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
I have recorded my comments on various pages of the attached PDF, which are self-explanatory.
Discussion is very poor, only three references are cited. Results are not comprehensively discussed with other scientific findings/mechanisms, etc.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
The English language needs to be improved.
Author Response
Reviewer 1
We greatly appreciate your critical observations as well as your constructive and helpful comments. We hope that we could address your questions/comments by the explanations and revisions made in the manuscript. We believe that the manuscript is substantially improved after making the suggested revisions.
Comment: I have recorded my comments on various pages of the attached PDF, which are self-explanatory.
Response: We greatly appreciate your critical observations. As suggested by the esteemed reviewer, all highlighted comments were done. Kindly check the updated manuscript. . Comment: Discussion is very poor, only three references are cited. Results are not comprehensively discussed with other scientific findings/mechanisms, etc.
Response: The authors are extremely thankful to the reviewer for this thoughtful point. The use of the color sensor in classifying fruits based on color is a new technology and there is very little current research to compare and discuss the specific parameters results in our manuscript. But any way, we improved this section by added the other previous studies.
Comments: The English language needs to be improved.
Response: English language was improved.
The authors once again thank the learned Editors and Reviewers for their valuable comments for improving the quality of the manuscript
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors designed and optimized the performance of a low-cost multi purposes automatic RGB color-based sensor for sorting fruits. The affections of belt color, height of the color sensor, light intensity on the sorting results are also discussed. The comments are as follows:
1. What is the definition of "quality" of the fruits and vegetables? It is very complicate even for just one fruit, like apple. Besides color, the weight, the size, the degree of sweetness should be considered to evaluate the "quality". The manuscript only focused on the color.
2. Color of just one single fruit on different portion may be varied. The authors used two RGB color sensors to get the color information. However, this can not achieved a complete evaluation of the whole surface of the fruit (surface perpendicular to feeding direction). The authors should give more explanations.
3. In figure 2, how the fruit can be placed onto the right position of the fruit box?
4. Figures 3, 5, 7, 9 10, should be deleted. These pictures do not have much significance for readers.
5. The information is processed on the computer with C++. It is not a realtime control system. So how to accurately coordinate the action of the push arm motors with the belt motor?
6. Why the author should calibrate the speed of the belt? In my opinion, its speed can be easily obtained from the step motor of the belt.
7. The author may consider to add proximity trigger device on the belt. If so, the motion of the push motor may have no relevant with the speed of the belt. The system may achieve a better performance.
8. How to define the threshold for the classification of the fruit should be explained clearly.
9. Figures in section "2.2 Programming codes of RGB Sensors" should be deleted.
10. The meaning of the symbols in equation (3)-(6) should be denoted.
11. The author should consider the meaning of "optimizing". Usually, the optimization problem has objective function, constrictions. Then, a best solution of the objective function can be achieved via optimizing methods.
12. The authors should focus on the contribution and novelty when writing the manuscript.
The descriptions should be more concise.
Author Response
Reviewer 2
We greatly appreciate your critical observations as well as your constructive and helpful comments. We hope that we could address your questions/comments by the explanations and revisions made in the manuscript. We believe that the manuscript is substantially improved after making the suggested revisions.
Comment-1: What is the definition of "quality" of the fruits and vegetables? It is very complicate even for just one fruit, like apple. Besides color, the weight, the size, the degree of sweetness should be considered to evaluate the "quality". The manuscript only focused on the color.
Response-1: The authors are thankful to the honorable reviewer for the words of encouragement and trust in our work. We completely agree with you, so the overall aim of the present research was to design, optimize and evaluate a multi-purposes automatic sorting system based on RGB color sensor and smart monitoring unit for sorting fruits only. The current study offers two important new insights. Firstly, design a multi-purpose automatic sorting machine for different fruits based on color features. Secondly, optimizing some important design parameters which greatly impact the performance of automatic sorting and grading system based on RGB color features, such as conveyor belt color, light intensity, type of color channels, and height of RGB color sensors. Kindly check the updated manuscript (Page 2).
Comment-2: Color of just one single fruit on different portion may be varied. The authors used two RGB color sensors to get the color information. However, this cannot achieved a complete evaluation of the whole surface of the fruit (surface perpendicular to feeding direction). The authors should give more explanations .
Response-2: The authors are extremely thankful to the reviewer for this thoughtful point. We agree with you, but using two sensors in two perpendicular directions gave highly accurate results, as several scans were taken while the belt was moving, and the average values of these scans were taken, as the number of these scans sometimes reached 10 values for each sensor.
Comment-3: In figure 2, how the fruit can be placed onto the right position of the fruit box?
Response-3: The authors are extremely thankful to the reviewer for this thoughtful point. The position of the fruit in the collection box has been modified for clarity only.
Comment-4: Figures 3, 5, 7, 9 10, should be deleted. These pictures do not have much significance for readers.
Response-4: The authors are extremely thankful to the reviewer for this thoughtful point. As suggested by the esteemed reviewer, Figures 7, 9, and 10, were deleted. Kindly check the updated paper.
We think that figure 3, is important, because it illustrates the detailed views and main dimensions of the purposed ACSS as well as figure 3, is important, because it is showing the schematic diagram of the main electronic parts used in the purposed ACSS with successful electrical rules checks for the current meters and power control.
Comment-5: The information is processed on the computer with C++. It is not a realtime control system. So how to accurately coordinate the action of the push arm motors with the belt motor?
Response-5: The authors are extremely thankful to the reviewer for this thoughtful point. The information is processed on the Arduino Mega board with C++ and laptop is used only in laboratory test for showing the obtained data. The microprocessor on Arduino Mega board accurately coordinates the action of the push arm motors with the belt motor according to the operational algorithm as depicted in Figure 8.
Comment-6: Why the author should calibrate the speed of the belt? In my opinion, its speed can be easily obtained from the step motor of the belt.
Response-6: The authors are extremely thankful to the reviewer for this thoughtful point. We completely agree with you, we can obtained the speed of the belt from the step motor of the belt, but the speed of the belt is of great importance in matching the movement between the process of scanning the apples and the movement of the push arm motors, and as a result of the presence of a slip between the conveyor belt and the roller, we had to measure and calibrate periodically the actual speed of the conveyor belt to accurately coordinate the action of the push arm motors with the belt motor.
Comment-7: The author may consider to add proximity trigger device on the belt. If so, the motion of the push motor may have no relevant with the speed of the belt. The system may achieve a better performance.
Response-7: The authors are extremely thankful to the reviewer for this thoughtful point. The microprocessor on Arduino Mega board accurately coordinates the action of the push arm motors with the belt motor according to the operational algorithm as depicted in Figure 8. And we measure and calibrate periodically the actual speed of the conveyor belt to accurately coordinate the action of the push arm motors with the belt motor. This method was considered during design but was not used and the current method was used.
Comment-8: How to define the threshold for the classification of the fruit should be explained clearly.
Response-8: The authors are extremely thankful to the reviewer for this thoughtful point. As suggested by the esteemed reviewer, the threshold for the classification of the fruit was explained clearly. Kindly check the updated manuscript.
Comment-9: Figures in section "2.2 Programming codes of RGB Sensors" should be deleted.
Response-9: The authors are extremely thankful to the reviewer for this thoughtful point. Figures in section "2.2 Programming codes of RGB Sensors" were deleted. Kindly check the updated manuscript.
Comment-10: The meaning of the symbols in equation (3)-(6) should be denoted.
Response-10: The authors are extremely thankful to the reviewer for this thoughtful point. As suggested by the esteemed reviewer, the symbols in equation (3)-(6) were denoted in nomenclature and abbreviation table page No.13. Kindly check the updated manuscript.
Comment-11: The author should consider the meaning of "optimizing". Usually, the optimization problem has objective function, constrictions. Then, a best solution of the objective function can be achieved via optimizing methods .
Response-11: The authors are extremely thankful to the reviewer for this thoughtful point. The improvement process was taken into account during the design and operation, where many design variables related to operating efficiency were studied, such as the color of the conveyor belt, the height of the sensors, and the intensity of lighting, and results were obtained that would improve the process of manufacturing and operating the machine.
Comment-12: The authors should focus on the contribution and novelty when writing the manuscript.
Response-12: The authors are extremely thankful to the reviewer for this thoughtful point. As suggested by the esteemed reviewer, the novelty in current work is highlighted in the revised paper and put in introduction, abstract and conclusion sections. Kindly check the updated manuscript.
The authors once again thank the learned Editors and Reviewers for their valuable comments for improving the quality of the manuscript.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
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