Modeling of Drying Kinetics of Banana (Musa spp., Musaceae) Slices with the Method of Image Processing and Artificial Neural Networks

In this study, modeling of thin banana slices dried on 316 stainless steel shelves is carried out in an oven working with serial controlled and concentric blower-resistor couple. Changes occurred in banana slices (area and color) during drying process have been recorded by a camera. Additionally, weight has been measured with a load cell which is under the shelf and energy consumption has been measured with electricity consumption meter which is tied to energy input. The main aim of the study is to conduct the drying process of banana slices according to the data obtained from camera. Besides, obtained data have been tested with a powerful modeling technique like Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), and it has been seen that drying process could be modeled according to the data obtained from camera. Energy consumption data have been added in order to increase the performance of ANN and strengthen the modeling. Thus, an automatic drying system that can learn by itself using only a camera without any other sensors will be installed. This has been caused an increase in performance. However, it is obvious that it increases cost. According to the results of modeling process, 99% of “goodness of fit” has been obtained by using the change in banana slices and the number of pixels. It has been found that the developed model performed adequately in predicting the changes of the moisture content. Thus, it has been available to control the food drying process with a digital camera.