Multiclass Apple Varieties Classification Using Machine Learning with Histogram of Oriented Gradient and Color Moments

Abstract

It is critically necessary to maximize the efficiency of agricultural methods while concurrently reducing the cost of production. Varieties, types, and fruit classification grades are crucial to fruit production. High expenditure, inconsistent subjectivity, and tedious labor characterize traditional and manual varieties classification. This study developed machine learning (ML) models to classify ten apple varieties, extracting the histogram of oriented gradient (HOG) and color moments from RGB apple images. Support vector machine (SVM), random forest classifier (RFC), multilayer perceptron (MLP), and K-nearest neighbor (KNN) classification models were trained with 10-fold stratified cross-validation (Skfold) by using the textural and color features, and a GridSearch was implemented to fine-tune the hyperparameters. The trained models, SVM, RFC, MLP, and KNN were tested with separate test data and performed well, having an accuracy of 98.17%, 96.67%, 98.62%, and 91.28%, respectively. Having the top results, the MLP and SVM models demonstrated the potential of applying HOG and color moments to train ML models for classifying apple varieties. This study suggests conducting further research to thoroughly examine additional image features and determine the impact of combining features and utilizing different classifiers.