DESIGN OF AN AUTOMATED CORN KERNEL INSPECTION SYSTEM FOR MACHINE VISION

A prototype machine vision system for automatically inspecting corn ke rnels was designed and built. A strobe light was used to eliminate ima ge blur due to the motion of cant kernels. Kernel singulation and the synchronization of strobe firing with the image acquisition were achie ved by using optical sensors. Control circuitry was designed to enable synchronization of strobe firing to the vertical blanking period of t he camera. Corn kernels of random orientation were inspected for whole versus broken percentages and err-line tests had successful classific ation rates of 91% and 94% for whole and broken kernels, respectively.