Design and fabrication of an automated fruit sorting conveyor system

The calculations give a spacing-limited theoretical rate of 20 fruits/min and a roller speed of approximately 38 r/min at the stated belt speed and roller radius. The torque estimate is also conditional on the assumed equivalent load and resistance co efficient. These values are for initial component selection only: they do not account fully for belt pretension, startup .loads, imageprocessing delay, fruit variability, or actuator settling time. No constructed machine or experimental measurements are claimed in this paper. Accordingly, no accuracy, damage, or operating-rate benefit can yet be attributed to the proposed design. The principal outcome is a testable prototype specifica tion and evaluation procedure. A completed build should be assessed using fruit samples graded independently under a written reference protocol. The resulting evidence can estab lish whether the selected mechanism and sensing arrangement meet the intended small-scale use case, and can guide redesign before any operational or economic claims are made.

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