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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Environmental Microbial & Food Safety Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #328595
Research Project: Sensing Technologies for the Detection and Characterization of Microbial, Chemical, and Biological Contaminants in Foods

Location: Environmental Microbial & Food Safety Laboratory

Title: Design of an automated cart and mount for a hyperspectral imaging system to be used in produce fields

Author
item LEFCOURT, ALAN
item KISTLER, ROSS - UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
item GADSDEN, ANDREW - UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

Submitted to: Proceedings of SPIE
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/12/2016
Publication Date: 7/12/2016
Citation: Lefcourt, A.M., Kistler, R., Gadsden, A. 2016. Design of an automated cart and mount for a hyperspectral imaging system to be used in produce fields. Proceedings of SPIE. SPIE symposium paper, April 17-21, 2016, Baltimore, MD.

Interpretive Summary: The presence of fecal materials in produce fields is a recognized food safety concern. The current requirement is that fields be surveyed by eye prior to harvest, and that any problem area be excluded from harvest. The cart and hyperspectral system presented in this study are designed to test the feasibility of using imaging techniques to supplement existing survey protocols. A key goal is to use the described system to determine the most cost-effective method and technique for developing an automated field survey system. This manuscript will be of interest to food safety scientists, agricultural equipment manufactures, food production companies, and farmers.

Technical Abstract: The goal of this project was to construct a cart and a mounting system that would allow a hyperspectral laser-induced fluorescence imaging system (HLIFIS) to be used to detect fecal material in produce fields. Fecal contaminated produce is a recognized food safety risk. Previous research demonstrated the HLIFIS could detect fecal contamination in a laboratory setting. A cart was designed and built, and then tested to demonstrate that the cart was capable of moving at constant speeds or at precise intervals. A mounting system was designed and built to facilitate the critical alignment of the camera’s imaging and the laser’s illumination fields, and to allow the HLIFIS to be used in both field and laboratory settings without changing alignments. A hardened mount for the Powell lens that is used to produce the appropriate illumination profile was also designed, built, and tested.