Infrared Physics & Technology 111 (2020) 103529

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Infrared Physics and Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/infrared

Regular article

Determination of bagged ‘Fuji’ apple maturity by visible and near-infrared

spectroscopy combined with a machine learning algorithm
Mengsheng Zhang a, b, Bo Zhang a, b, Hao Li a, b, Maosheng Shen a, b, Shijie Tian a, b,
Haihui Zhang a, b, c, Xiaolin Ren d, Libo Xing d, *, Juan Zhao a, b, c, *
a
Northwest A&F University, College of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China
b
Key Laboratory of Agricultural Internet of Things, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China
c
Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Agricultural Information Perception and Intelligent Service, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China
d
Northwest A&F University, College of Horticulture, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Determination of apple maturity in orchards is very important to determine the harvest time and postharvest
Bagged ‘Fuji’ apple storage conditions. The aim of this study is to investigate the ability of visible and near-infrared (Vis-NIR)
Maturity spectroscopy to determine the maturity of bagged ‘Fuji’ apples using the starch index as the maturity index.
Visible and near-infrared spectroscopy
Using the starch index, 846 apples were divided into three maturity levels (immature, harvest maturity, and
Starch index
eatable maturity). Principal component analysis, the random frog (RF) algorithm, and the RF algorithm com­
bined with the successive projection algorithm (RF-SPA) were used to extract the principal components or
characteristic wavelengths of the spectral data. Five machine learning algorithms, namely, the least squares
support vector machine (LSSVM), the probabilistic neural network, the extreme learning machine, the partial
least squares discrimination analysis, and linear discriminant analysis (LDA), were used to develop a calibration
model. By comparing the results of different modeling methods, it was determined that the prediction perfor­
mance of the RF-SPA-LSSVM model based on 15 characteristic wavelengths was the best. The classification
accuracy of the prediction set was 89.05% and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the
three types of apples was greater than 0.9210. In addition, four spectral indexes related to the chlorophyll
content were used to predict apple maturity. The classification accuracies of the LDA models based on the
spectral indexes were 77.63%–80.95%, which were lower than that of the calibration model based on the
characteristic wavelength. The results show that the maturity of bagged ‘Fuji’ apples can be accurately and
nondestructive determined by Vis-NIR spectroscopy. The selected characteristic wavelengths and spectral in­
dexes can provide a reference for development of a nondestructive device for determination of apple maturity.

1. Introduction
Apples (Malus domestica Borkh.) are an important type of economic
fruit. They are popular with consumers because of their rich nutrition
and crisp taste [1,2]. Apples are usually harvested earlier than their full
maturity season, and coordinating postharvest treatment to obtain a
longer shelf life to ensure a year-round supply of apples. However, apple
maturity at harvest affects the yield, quality, storage, and transportation
capacity of apples. If apples are harvested too early, the flavor of the
apples has not yet formed, the sensory quality is poor, and it is easy to
cause disease during storage. Conversely, if apples are harvested too
late, their shelf life will be shortened, and it is easier for them to be
damaged and become rotten during storage and transportation, result­
ing in serious loss and waste [3]. In addition, because of the influence of
the climatic environment, planting conditions, and growth status of the
apple trees, the maturity of apples in the same period is different. Har­
vesting apples with different maturities at the same time would lead to
great problems in determining their use and storage conditions, and it is
relatively difficult to ensure the quality of the apples after storage [4].
Thus, prediction of apple maturity is important to improve the apple
quality and reduce the loss after harvest.
At present, fruit maturity is mainly determined by the grower’s

* Corresponding authors at: College of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Northwest A&F University, 22 Xinong Road, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China (J.
Zhao). 3 Taicheng Road, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China (L. Xing).
E-mail addresses: libo_xing@nwsuaf.edu.cn (L. Xing), zhaojuan@nwsuaf.edu.cn (J. Zhao).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infrared.2020.103529
Received 12 August 2020; Received in revised form 18 September 2020; Accepted 24 September 2020
Available online 29 September 2020
1350-4495/© 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
M. Zhang et al.
planting experience, or estimated by physical and chemical measure­
ments during the ripening process. These measurement methods are
destructive, and they have the disadvantages of long analysis time,
cumbersome operation, and sample damage, which are not practical for
wide application [5]. To avoid destructive determination of fruit
maturity, researchers have developed nondestructive determination
methods to predict fruit maturity. These methods include electronic
nose technology and gas sensors [6,7], dielectric technology [8], ma­
chine vision [9], hyperspectral imaging, and visible and near-infrared
(Vis-NIR) spectroscopy [10]. Among these methods, Vis-NIR spectros­
copy is widely accepted because of its simple operation, rapid analysis,
and suitability for online and portable determination.
Several internal quality indices of apples have been successfully
predicted by Vis-NIR spectroscopy, including the soluble solid content
(SSC), firmness, titratable acid content, dry matter content, and internal
diseases [11–13]. Regarding application of Vis-NIR spectroscopy to
apple maturity determination, Peirs, et al. [14] used Vis-NIR spectros­
copy to predict the best harvest dates of different varieties of apple.
Peirs, et al. [15] further analyzed the influence of the natural variability
among apples on the accuracy of predicting the best harvest date. Based
on the ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) analysis technology of diffuse
reflection, Bertone, et al. [16] monitored the changes of the chlorophyll
content in apple trees during ripening. In addition, NIR and UV–Vis
spectral data were used to directly predict the best apple harvest date.
These studies focused on prediction of the best apple harvest date. Ac­
cording to the ripening time, Pourdarbani, et al. [17] divided ‘Fuji’
apples into four maturity stages, and they used the color and spectral
data of the apples to automatically and nondestructively determine
apple maturity. However, because the apple maturity was different in
the same period, it was difficult to determine the maturity of individual
fruit according to the ripening time. Nagy, et al. [18] studied the spectral
characteristics of apple peel and pulp during apple ripening, and they
found that the wavelength of 678 nm, which is sensitive to low chlo­
rophyll content, was suitable for investigating apple maturity and the
ripening process. DeLong, et al. [19] used a delta absorbance detector
based on the absorbance difference index (IAD) to develop a harvest
maturity model for many types of apples. Apple maturity was deter­
mined by the IAD value, and the optimal harvest boundary of the IAD
value was set to determine the apple harvest time. However, in the
research of apple maturity determination based on Vis-NIR spectros­
copy, there have been no studies on maturity determination of bagged
apples. Bagging cultivation is an effective technology to improve the
quality of apples, and it is widely used in China, Korea, Japan, and other
countries. Nevertheless, because of the existence of a bag, the color of
the apple peel is restrained, leading to great differences in the appear­
ance of unbagged and bagged apples at the same maturity stage [20,21].
Bagged apples at different ripening stages cannot be distinguished by
color data. Therefore, it is necessary to use internal indicators of the
apples to determine bagged apple maturity. The starch index is
considered to be the most reliable index to determine apple maturity.
The visual evaluation model based on starch dyeing is widely recog­
nized, and bagging does not affect the starch index, which is suitable for
maturity determination of bagged ‘Fuji’ apples [22,23].
The main aim of this study is to use Vis-NIR spectroscopy to realize
nondestructive determination of the individual apple maturity of bagged
‘Fuji’ apples. The specific objectives are as follows: (1) divide apples into
three maturity grades according to the starch index, (2) develop apple
maturity classification models based on the characteristic wavelengths
and spectral indexes, and (3) compare the accuracies of the developed
models to select the best prediction model.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Experimental samples
The experimental samples were collected from a commercial orchard
2
Infrared Physics and Technology 111 (2020) 103529
in Fufeng County, Shaanxi Province, China. The apples of all of the apple
trees in the orchard were covered with two layers of paper bags after two
months of full bloom. Twelve ‘Fuji’ apple trees with similar growth
status were randomly selected as fixed sampling points in the orchard.
During the period from September 12, 2019 to October 24, 2019, seven
batches of experimental samples were collected, with each batch of
apples containing about 120 apples. A total of 846 apple samples with
different maturities were collected. Apples with different harvest dates
are shown in Fig. 1. After each batch of apples was picked, the bags of
the next batch of apples were removed for coloring. On the same day, all
of the picked apples were transported to the College of Mechanical and
Electronic Engineering, Northwest A&F University. The apples were
cleaned and numbered in the laboratory, and then stored in the labo­
ratory (temperature of about 20 ℃) for 24 h, which made the apples
reach room temperature to eliminate the effect of the apple temperature
on the predicted results. Because the information about different posi­
tions of an apple was different, four locations with uniform distributions
and no defects were selected at the equatorial plane of each apple for
spectral data acquisition and physical and chemical measurement. The
average value of the four-position data was taken as the spectral data
and physical and chemical values of a complete apple.
2.2. Spectral data acquisition
The spectral data of the apples were collected with a Vis-NIR spec­
trum acquisition system. The system was composed of a spectrometer
(Maya2000 pro, Ocean Optics Inc., USA), a halogen light source (HL-
2000, Ocean Optics Inc.), a reflective optical fiber, a dark box, a tray,
and a computer (Fig. 2). The spectrum measurement range of the
spectrometer was 300–1100 nm, the sampling interval was 0.413–0.461
nm, and the image value was 2068. Before spectrum measurement, the
spectrometer and light source were preheated for 30 min, and then
Oceanview software (Ocean Optics Inc.) was used to control the spec­
trometer to collect the spectral data. The integration time was set to 10
ms, and the number of smooth points was 5. Dark spectrum correction
and nonlinear correction were selected. The average value of five scans
was recorded as the spectral data of each test point. To eliminate the
influence of dark current, a standard white board (WR-D97, material
PTFE) was used to obtain the standard white reference spectrum
(Rwhite), and then the standard dark reference spectrum (Rdark) was
obtained after the light source was turned off. To obtain the reflection
spectrum of the sample (R), the original spectrum (Rraw) was corrected
by
Rraw − Rdark
R= × 100% (1)
Rwhite − Rdark
Because of the noise in the front and tail regions of the obtained
reflectance spectra, only the spectral data in the wavelength range
400–1080 nm was selected as effective information for further analysis.
For each sample spectrum, there was 1568 variables in the wavelength
range 400–1080 nm.
2.3. Reference data measurement
2.3.1. Internal quality measurement
After spectral acquisition was complete, the traditional destructive
determination method was used to measure the apple firmness (punc­
ture test), SSC, and titratable acidity (TA). First, the firmness of the apple
was measured at the marked point of each fruit by a texture analyzer
(TA. XT Express, Stable Micro Systems, UK). The probe type of the
texture analyzer was P/2, the puncture distance was set to 10 mm, and
the puncture speed was set to 1 mm/s. The apples were then cross-cut
along the equatorial plane, and half of them were selected to measure
the SSC and TA. A proper amount of pulp was obtained at the marked
points of the apple, and a garlic press was used to press the pulp to obtain
juice. Using a pipette gun, 1 ml of the apple juice was dropped on a
M. Zhang et al. Infrared Physics and Technology 111 (2020) 103529

Fig. 1. Apples with different harvest dates.

the starch index depends not only on the starch conversion rate, but also
on its pattern on the cross-section of the apple, it is easy to produce
subjective evaluation errors through the direct reading of the inspector.
To reduce the subjective evaluation error of the inspector, the starch
staining image of the apple was analyzed by MATLAB software (Math­
Works Inc., Natick, Massachusetts, USA) to calculate the starch con­
version rate. The process of image processing is shown in Fig. 3. Then the
inspector read the starch index directly on the reference chart according
to the starch conversion rate. All the starch index readings were carried
out by the same person.

2.4. Spectral data preprocessing

2.4.1. Dimensionality reduction method

Fig. 2. Diffuse reflectance spectrum acquisition system.
The Vis-NIR spectra of the samples are composed of thousands of
variables, which are high-dimensional data containing noise and useless
digital refractometer (PAL-BX/ACID5, ATAGO, Japan) to measure the
information. Using all of the data to develop a calibration model leads to
SSC. In addition, 0.306 ml of the apple juice was obtained with a pipette
a complex calculation and a long calculation time [25]. In addition,
gun and then diluted 100 times with distilled water, and 5 ml of the
noise and useless information affect the accuracy and robustness of the
diluted apple juice was dropped on a fruit acidity tester (GMK-835F
calibration model. In this study, two types of dimensionality reduction
(apple), G-WON, South Korea) to measure the TA. Given that the apple
methods were used to reduce the dimensionality of the spectral data: (i)
pulp and juice might be oxidized during the measurement process, the
principal component analysis (PCA) and (ii) the random frog (RF) al­
whole measurement process was completed as soon as possible.
gorithm combined with the successive projections algorithm (SPA). PCA
is the most commonly used and effective algorithm to solve collinearity
2.3.2. Starch index measurement
of spectral data, extract data feature information, and realize data var­
The starch index of the apples was evaluated by the iodine test
iable compression. The principal components extracted by PCA are the
method. The preparation method of the iodine solution used in the
linear combinations of the original variables, and they are orthogonal.
iodine test has been described by He, et al. [24]. In the process of dyeing,
The information contained in the principal components does not over­
an appropriate amount of iodine solution was poured into a glass culture
lap, which can eliminate multicollinearity among the variables. The RF
dish, and then the apple was cross-cut along the equatorial plane. Half of
algorithm is a new variable optimization algorithm that calculates the
the apple with the stem was selected, and the cross-section of the apple
selection probability of each variable by iterative modeling with a small
was immersed in iodine solution for about 1 min. The sample was then
number of variables. The number of characteristic wavelengths is
removed and dried for about 1 min. Finally, the starch staining image of
determined by setting an appropriate selection threshold [26]. The
the apple was recorded with a digital camera.
characteristic wavelengths selected by the RF algorithm usually still
The starch index was determined by comparing the dyeing image
contain collinear variables, and the combination of variables with
with the reference dyeing chart (scale of 1 (0% unstained) to 8 (100%
minimum collinearity can be obtained by using the SPA. In the process
unstained) stained) of ‘Fuji’ apple [24]. Because the determination of
of selecting the characteristic wavelengths based on the SPA, by

Fig. 3. Process for calculating the starch conversion rate from the apple starch dyed image: (a) original image, (b) original image segmentation result based on the k-
means (k = 3), (c) mask image, (d) starch-stained image with the background removed, and (e) image segmentation result based on the k-means (k = 3).

3
M. Zhang et al.
Table 1
Calculation formula of apple maturity spectral index.
Spectral index Description Calculation formulaa
Ind1 Absorption peak depth R720 + R634 − 2R674
Ind2 Relative depth of absorption peak R674 /(R720 + R634 )
Ind3 Normalized intensity difference (R720 − R674 )/(R720 + R674 )
IAD Absorbance difference index log10 (R720 /R674 )
a
R634, R720, R674 represent the spectral reflectance of 634 nm, 674 nm and
720 nm wavelengths, respectively.
introducing unselected variables in each cycle and calculating their
projection, the wavelength with the largest projection vector is intro­
duced into the wavelength combination, and finally the wavelength
combination with the least redundant information is obtained [27].
2.4.2. Spectral index
The spectral index combines the spectral reflectance of two or more
wavelengths related to the feature of interest on the spectral curve to
indicate the relative abundance of the feature of interest [5]. In the
process of apple ripening, chlorophyll is gradually lost, which is an
important index to reflect the change of apple ripening. For analysis of
the spectral curves of apples with different maturities, establishment of
the spectral index using the reflectivity or absorbance related to the
chlorophyll absorption peak might be suitable for tracking the change of
apple maturity. Therefore, in this study, considering the four current
spectral index construction methods used to determine the maturity of
peaches, watermelon, and other fruits [28,29], four spectral indexes
reflecting the characteristics of the chlorophyll absorption peak were
established by selecting three wavelength points (634, 674, and 720 nm,
which are the wavelengths of the starting point, lowest point, and end
point of the chlorophyll absorption peak, respectively) related to chlo­
rophyll in the spectral curve, and application of these four indexes to
apple maturity level recognition was investigated. The formulas for
calculating the four indices are shown in Table 1.
2.4.3. Modeling method
Selecting an appropriate modeling method to develop a calibration
model guarantees accurate prediction of the apple maturity level. In this
study, five machine learning algorithms were selected to develop clas­
sification models of the apple maturity level: the least squares support
vector machine (LS-SVM), the probabilistic neural network (PNN), the
extreme learning machine (ELM), the partial least squares discrimina­
tion analysis (PLSDA), and linear discriminant analysis (LDA). The LS-
SVM is an improved support vector machine (SVM) algorithm that re­
duces the difficulty of solving the model by solving a system of linear
equations instead of the quadratic programming problem in the SVM
algorithm, and it is widely used in spectral data modeling and analysis
[30]. The PNN is a type of feed-forward network model that combines
the advantages of the radial basis function neural network and classical
probability density estimation principle. Compared with the traditional
feed-forward neural network, the PNN has significant advantages in
pattern classification [31]. The ELM is a type of feed-forward neural
network with a single hidden layer. In the training process, only the
number of hidden layer neurons needs to be determined to obtain the
Table 2
Calculation formulae and definitions of the performance evaluation indexes of the classification model.
Index Calculation formula
Accuracy TP + TN
Accuracy =
TP + TN + FP + FN
Recall TP
Recall =
TP + FN
Precision TP
Precision =
TP + FP
F1-Score 2 × Precision × Recall
F1 − Score =
Precision + Recall
4
Infrared Physics and Technology 111 (2020) 103529
only optimal solution, and it has good learning efficiency and general­
ization performance [32]. PLSDA is a strategy of discriminant analysis
using partial least squares regression. Its mathematical basis is principal
component analysis, so it is often insensitive to data collinearity and
allows a large number of variables, so it is widely used in near-infrared
spectral analysis. LDA achieves separation of different classes of samples
by projecting the spectral variables of the samples into the optimal
discriminant vector space, making the projection point distance of the
same type of samples as small as possible and the projection point dis­
tance of different classes of samples as large as possible [33,34].
2.4.4. Evaluation of the model performance
The confusion matrix, accuracy, recall, precision, F1-score, and
receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were used to evaluate the
overall performance of the classification models. The confusion matrix is
a specific matrix to visualize the prediction results of the model. The
accuracy is an index to evaluate the prediction accuracy of the model.
The recall, precision, and F1-score are used to evaluate the classification
performance of the model for each class of samples. When calculating
the recall, precision, and F1-score, the sample category is first converted
into two categories (target category and other categories), and then
calculated according to the evaluation index formula in the binary
classification problem. The calculation formulas and definitions of each
index are given in Table 2. The ROC is a comprehensive evaluation index
reflecting the continuous variables of the sensitivity and specificity in
the classification problem. By transforming the sample categories into
two categories, one ROC curve can be drawn for each class of samples. In
the ROC plot, the closer the curve is to the upper left edge of the plot, the
better the performance of the classification model. The AUC value refers
to the area under the ROC curve, which indicates the probability that a
positive sample ranks in front of a negative sample. The larger the area,
the better the classification performance of the positive sample. The
relationship between the AUC value and the diagnostic accuracy of the
model is given by Zhao, et al. [35].
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Determination of the apple maturity level
According to the apple ripening state and use, apples are usually
divided into immature apples, harvest maturity apples, and eatable
maturity apples [36]. Seven batches of apples were divided into three
groups (before-harvest, harvest and postharvest) according to the har­
vest time range given by apple growers. The distribution of the starch
index of the three groups of apples is shown in Fig. 4. The starch index of
harvest apple was concentrated in 6 and 7, and that of postharvest apple
was concentrated in 8, which was consistent with the experimental re­
sults given by He, et al. [24]. Their experimental results showed that
‘Fuji’ apple reached the best harvest time suitable for cold storage when
the starch index reached 6, and the edible quality of ‘Fuji’ apple
increased with the increase of the starch index. When the starch index
reached 8, the edible quality of ‘Fuji’ apple was the best, but it was no
longer suitable for long-term storage. Therefore, in this study, apples
with starch indexes less than or equal to 5 were defined as immature
apples. Apples with starch indexes 6 and 7 were defined as harvest
Definition
The ratio of correctly predicted samples to total samples.
The proportion of positive samples predicted correctly to all positive samples.
The proportion of positive samples predicted correctly to all positive samples predicted.
The harmonic average of precision and recall.
M. Zhang et al.
Fig. 4. The distribution of the starch index in three groups of apples.
maturity apples, which are suitable for long-term postharvest storage
and long-distance transportation. Apples with starch indexes of 8 were
defined as eatable maturity apples, which are of the best edible quality
and suitable for postharvest consumption and short-term storage and
sale.
The statistical data of the SSC, firmness, and TA of the three groups of
apples with different maturity levels determined according to the starch
index are given in Table 3. These three quality indicators are often used
as important indexes to evaluate apple maturity. In the process of apple
maturity, the SSC gradually increased, while the firmness and TA
gradually decreased. The SSC, firmness, and TA of the three groups of
apples were analyzed by variance analysis. The results showed that the
firmness and TA of the samples were significantly different among the
groups, and significantly decreased with increasing apple maturity.
There was no significant difference in the SSC between harvest and
eatable maturity apples, but there were significant differences between
the harvest and eatable maturity apples and the immature apples. In
general, according to the variance results, significant differences existed
in the internal quality characteristics among the three groups of apples.
After determining the apple maturity level, the apples of each
maturity level (274 immature apples, 326 harvest maturity apples, and
246 eatable maturity apples) were randomly assigned to the calibration
set and prediction set in the ratio of 3:1, and 636 (206 immature, 245
harvest maturity, and 185 eatable maturity) and 210 apples (68
immature, 81 harvest maturity, and 61 eatable maturity) were obtained
in the calibration and prediction sets, respectively.
3.2. Spectral analysis
In the full spectrum, the wavelength range 400–625 nm is the main
absorption wavelength range of anthocyanins, and synthesis of antho­
cyanins is greatly affected by bagging and illumination [20,37].
Therefore, the spectral data in the wavelength range 400–625 nm is not
suitable for maturity determination of bagged ‘Fuji’ apples. In this study,
the spectral data in the wavelength range 625–1080 nm was selected as
Table 3
Statistical results of the internal quality data of the three groups of apples.
Sample category No. SSC
a
Range Mean ± SD
b
Immature 274 10.60–14.73 12.69 ± 0.82b
Harvest maturity 326 10.63–15.65 13.21 ± 1.06a
Eatable maturity 246 10.45–16.30 13.25 ± 1.03a
a
SD means the standard deviation.
b
Mean values in the same column with different letters (a, b, c) are significantly different (p ≤ 0.05).
5
Infrared Physics and Technology 111 (2020) 103529
Fig. 5. Average reflectance spectra of apples with different maturity levels.
information for further analysis.
The average reflectance spectra of the apples with different maturity
levels are shown in Fig. 5. The spectra of the apples with different
maturity levels showed a similar trend, but the spectral reflectance
decreased with increasing apple maturity, which indicates that great
changes occurred in the internal substance contents of the apples with
maturity. Two obvious absorption peaks are observed in the spectral
curves of the apples with different maturity levels. The first absorption
peak is related to the chlorophyll content. Because of gradual loss of
chlorophyll, the characteristics of the chlorophyll absorption peaks of
the different maturity apples showed clear differences. The second ab­
sorption peak is related to the water content. The characteristics of the
water absorption peaks of the apples with different maturities did not
significantly change, but the reflectivity decreased with increasing apple
maturity. In general, the spectral difference of the different maturity
apples caused by the change of the internal substance contents provides
a premise for realization of apple maturity determination.
3.3. Principal component extraction and characteristic wavelength
selection
3.3.1. Principal component extraction based on PCA
PCA was performed on the full spectrum data (625–1080 nm) of all
of the apples to extract the principal components and investigate the
spectral differences of apples with different maturity levels. The score
map of the first three principal components is shown in Fig. 6. The ap­
ples with the same maturity level showed a certain clustering trend, but
the apples with different maturity levels showed serious overlap, and no
boundary could be determined to distinguish the apples with different
maturity levels. Therefore, it was necessary to use more principal
components to develop an apple maturity classification model. The
contribution rates and cumulative contribution rates of the first 12
principal components are given in Table 4. The contribution rates of the
first 11 principal components were greater than 0.001% and the
Firmness TA
Range Mean ± SD Range Mean ± SD
7.74–15.16 10.85 ± 1.13a 0.17–0.52 0.28 ± 0.05a
6.63–13.67 9.83 ± 1.13b 0.15–0.51 0.26 ± 0.06b
6.04–12.91 8.41 ± 0.95c 0.12–0.48 0.22 ± 0.05c
M. Zhang et al. Infrared Physics and Technology 111 (2020) 103529

was used to realize the ten-fold cross validation of partial least squares
model to obtain the root mean square error of cross validation
(RMSECV). Finally, according to the minimum RMSECV, the selection
probability threshold of the characteristic wavelengths was determined
to be 0.2385, 49 variables were selected as characteristic wavelength
variables from the full spectrum (1072 variables).
Some of the wavelength variables with selection probabilities greater
than the threshold probability were very close, which indicates that
some collinear variables may still exist. To further improve the robust­
ness and simplify the model, SPA was performed to further select the
characteristic wavelengths. The process of characteristic wavelength
extraction based on SPA is shown in Fig. 7b. The RMSE rapidly
decreased with increasing number variables included in the model.
When the number of reserved variables increased to 15, the RMSE
reached a reasonable value. For more than 15 variables, the RMSE
changed little with inclusion of more variables in the model, which in­
dicates that the subsequent variables had little effect on the accuracy of
the model. Therefore, a total of 15 characteristic wavelengths related to
apple maturity were selected by RF-SPA (675, 678, 729, 788, 861, 884,
914, 973, 1000, 1009, 1015, 1021, 1026, 1036, and 1085 nm). The
distribution of the selected characteristic wavelengths on the spectral
curve is shown in Fig. 7c.

3.4. Prediction of the apple maturity level

3.4.1. Prediction of the apple maturity level based on the principal

Fig. 6. Score map of the first three principal components: (a) PC1-PC2. (b)
PC1-PC3.
cumulative contribution rate was 99.9941%, which means that these 11
principal components covered almost all of the spectral information.
Thus, in follow-up analysis, the first 11 principal components were used
to develop a calibration model combined with a machine learning
algorithm.
3.3.2. Characteristic wavelength selection based on RF-SPA
The selection probability of each variable of the spectral data ob­
tained by the RF algorithm, which represents the importance of the
variable, is shown in Fig. 7a. The selection probabilities of most of the
wavelengths were very low. Only the selection probabilities of a few
wavelengths were high, which indicates that most of the wavelengths
were not associated with the apple maturity level. In order to determine
the selection probability threshold of the characteristic wavelength, the
wavelengths with the lowest selection probabilities were continuously
removed from the full set of wavelengths, and the reserved wavelength
components or characteristic wavelengths
The principal components or characteristic wavelengths of the
spectral data were extracted by PCA, the RF algorithm, and RF-SPA, and
apple maturity classification models were developed by combining with
five machine learning algorithms (LSSVM, ELM, PNN, PLSDA, and LDA).
In this study, the RBF kernel function was used as the kernel function of
the LSSVM model, and 10-fold cross-validation and the two-dimensional
grid search method were used to determine the key parameters of the
LSSVM model (regularization parameter gam and kernel parameter
sig2). The number of hidden neurons in the ELM was determined by 10-
fold cross-validation. In addition, the 10-fold cross-validation method
was used to determine the optimal spread constant of the PNN. The
spread constant value was gradually increased in the range 0–0.5 with
an interval of 0.001. The PNN model was developed by using different
spread constants. The spread constant with the maximum accuracy of
cross-validation was considered to be optimal.
The prediction results of all of the developed models are given in
Table 5. All of the models achieved high prediction accuracy, and the
prediction accuracies were greater than 84.24%, which indicates that
apple maturity can be accurately predicted by using Vis-NIR spectros­
copy. Among the models, the classification accuracies of the models
developed based on the 11 principal components extracted by PCA were
85.24%–87.62%, among which the PCA-PNN model achieved the best
prediction accuracy (classification accuracy of the prediction set of
87.62%). In addition, the classification accuracies of the prediction set
for the models developed based on the characteristic wavelengths
selected by RF and RF-SPA were 84.24%–89.52%. Compared with the
ELM, PNN, PLSDA, and LDA models developed based on the charac­
teristic wavelengths, the LSSVM models developed based on the char­
acteristic wavelengths showed better recognition performance. The RF-
LSSVM and RF-SPA-LSSVM models achieved the best prediction

Table 4
Contribution rates and cumulative contribution rates of the first 12 principal components.
PC a PC1 PC2 PC3 PC4 PC5 PC6 PC7 PC8 PC9 PC10 PC11 PC12

Contribution rate (%) 95.8983 3.8193 0.1757 0.0475 0.0278 0.0098 0.0082 0.0034 0.0017 0.0013 0.0011 0.0008
Cumulative contribution rate 95.8983 99.7176 99.8933 99.9408 99.9686 99.9784 99.9866 99.9900 99.9917 99.9930 99.9941 99.9949
(%)
a
PC means the principal components.

6
M. Zhang et al. Infrared Physics and Technology 111 (2020) 103529

Fig. 7. Selection process of characteristic wavelength: (a) Probability value of each variable selection based on the RF algorithm. (b) The relationship between the
number of characteristic wavelengths and RMSECV based on RF. (c) Characteristic wavelength extraction process based on SPA. (d) Characteristic wavelength
selection results based on the RF algorithm and RF-SPA.

accuracies, with classification accuracies of the prediction set of 89.52%
and 89.05%, respectively. Compared with the RF-LSSVM model devel­
oped using 49 characteristic wavelengths, the RF-SPA-LSSVM model
only used 15 characteristic wavelengths, so it can be considered that the
prediction performance of the RF-SPA-LSSVM model was better than
that of the RF-LSSVM model.
The accuracy was not sufficiently high to reflect the prediction per­
formance of the model for each class of apples, so other evaluation in­
dexes were needed to further analyze the model results. According to
different dimensionality reduction methods, the PCA-PNN model
developed based on 11 principal components and the RF-SPA-LSSVM
model developed based on 15 characteristic wavelengths were
selected for further analysis. The confusion matrix, classification error,
recall, precision, F-score, and accuracy of the prediction set for the PCA-
PNN and RF-SPA-LSSVM models are given in Table 6. From the confu­
sion matrix, in the prediction results of the two models, the immature
and eatable maturity apples could be more accurately distinguished, but
there were more misclassifications between adjacent maturity samples.
The prediction error of the PCA-PNN model for the harvest maturity
apples was less than that for the RF-SPA-LSSVM model, and the pre­
diction errors for the immature and eatable maturity apples were greater
than those for the RF-SPA-LSSVM model. The recall, precision, and F-

Table 5
Prediction results of the different classification models.
Model Calibration set Prediction set

Sample Correct Accuracy/% Sample Correct Accuracy/%

PCA-LSSVM 636 589 92.61 210 181 86.19

PCA-ELM 636 559 87.89 210 180 85.71
PCA-PNN 636 586 92.14 210 184 87.62
PCA- LDA 636 536 84.28 210 179 85.24
PLSDA 636 544 85.53 210 178 84.76
RF-SPA-LSSVM 636 570 89.62 210 187 89.05
RF-SPA-ELM 636 563 88.52 210 182 86.67
RF-SPA-PNN 636 589 92.61 210 181 86.19
RF-SPA-LDA 636 544 85.53 210 184 87.62
RF-SPA-PLSDA 636 527 82.86 210 178 84.76
RF-LSSVM 636 570 89.62 210 188 89.52
RF-ELM 636 569 89.47 210 184 87.62
RF-PNN 636 579 91.04 210 182 86.67
RF-LDA 636 547 86.01 210 177 84.24
RF-PLSDA 636 547 86.01 210 180 85.71

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M. Zhang et al. Infrared Physics and Technology 111 (2020) 103529

Table 6
Confusion matrix, classification error, recall, precision, F-score, and accuracy of the prediction set for the PCA-PNN and RF-SPA-LSSVM models.
a
Model Sample category 1 2 3 No. Error/% Recall/% Precision/% F-score/% Accuracy/%

PCA-PNN 1 57 11 0 68 16.18 83.82 89.06 86.36 87.62

2 4 73 4 81 9.88 90.12 82.95 86.39
3 3 4 54 61 11.48 88.52 93.10 90.76
RF-SPA-LSSVM 1 60 7 1 68 11.76 88.24 90.91 89.55 89.05
2 4 71 6 81 12.35 87.65 87.65 84.65
3 2 3 56 61 8.20 91.80 88.89 90.32
a
Sample category: 1, immature; 2, harvest maturity; and 3, eatable maturity.

Fig. 8. The average ROC curves of the PCA-PNN and RF-SPA-LSSVM models (500 iterations, prediction set): (a) PCA-PNN model. (b) RF-SPA-LSSVM model.

score were used to evaluate the prediction performance of the two

models for each class of apples. For both models, these indicators were
greater than 82.95% for all of the categories (Table 6), which indicates
that the two models showed good prediction performance for the three
groups of apples. If the recall is equal to 100, which means that the
apples of the target category are not misclassified, it can be inferred that
more immature apples were misclassified by the PCA-PNN model. If the
precision is equal to 100, which means that there are no apples of other
categories in the prediction results of the target category, it can be
inferred that many of the apples predicted as harvest maturity by the
PCA-PNN model were misclassified. The average ROC curves used to
evaluate the classification performance of the two models are shown in
Fig. 8. 500 iterations were conducted to generate an average ROC curve
for each class of samples. For each iteration, 70% of the samples were
randomly selected for training, and 30% for predicting. Finally, the
average ROC curve was obtained based on the prediction data generated
from 500 iterations. The AUC indexes of the three types of apples in the
two models were all greater than 0.8795. According to the relationship
between the AUC value and the discrimination accuracy, the two models
showed excellent performance in distinguishing the three types of ap­
ples. In addition, the AUC values of the three ROC curves of the RF-SPA-
Fig. 9. The distribution of Ind1 values of the prediction set samples.
LSSVM model were greater than those of the PCA-PNN model, which
indicates that the prediction performance of the RF-SPA-LSSVM model
for the three maturity levels was better than that of the PCA-PNN model. 3.4.2. Prediction of the apple maturity level based on the spectral index
A classification model of the apple maturity level based on the
spectral index was developed by LDA. The prediction results of all of the
Table 7
models are given in Table 7. The classification accuracies of all of LDA
Classification results of the LDA models based on the spectral indexes.
models based on four spectral indexes were in the range 77.63%–
Spectra Calibration set Prediction set 80.95%. Among the models, the LDA model based on Ind1 showed the
index
best prediction performance (classification accuracy of the prediction
Sample Correct Accuracy/ Sample Correct Accuracy/
% % set of 80.95%). The distributions of Ind1 values of the prediction set are
shown in Fig. 9, where the dashed lines are the classification boundaries
Ind1 636 526 82.70 210 170 80.95
Ind2 636 516 81.13 210 164 78.10 determined by the LDA model. The apples could be well divided into the
Ind3 636 516 81.13 210 163 77.63 three categories by using the classification boundaries of the spectral
IAD 636 515 80.97 210 164 78.10 index, which indicates that a set of spectral indexes can be used to

8
M. Zhang et al.
indicate the change of apple maturity. In addition, the misclassified
samples of LDA model based on different spectral indexes were
analyzed. Although different spectral indices were used to predict the
apple maturity level, the apples that are misclassified are roughly the
same, which indicates that the information contained in the four spectral
indexes was the same despite the different construction methods.
3.5. Discussion
In general, the maturity of bagged ‘Fuji’ apples was determined by
Vis-NIR spectroscopy, and good prediction results were obtained. In this
study, the starch index of a single apple was used to determine apple
maturity, rather than the apple maturity stage. The starch index of an
apple is an internal index, and it is not affected by bagging. At the same
time, the starch index reflects the ripening state of a single apple rather
than that of the whole batch of apples, which is more conducive for
harvesting and storing apples in batches according to the ripening state
of the apple.
The apple maturity classification model based on spectral data ach­
ieved good prediction accuracy, and the prediction results showed that
the three levels of apple maturity can be accurately classified by Vis-NIR
spectroscopy. By RF-SPA, 15 characteristic wavelengths related to apple
maturity were extracted. These characteristic wavelengths can be found
in relevant studies of apple internal quality determination based on NIR
spectroscopy. For example, 675 and 678 nm are considered to be related
to the chlorophyll content, 973 nm is considered to be related to the
water content, and 914 nm is considered to be related to the sucrose
content, and other characteristic wavelengths are also found in SSC and
firmness determination of fruit based on the characteristic wavelengths
[38–41]. This indicates that these characteristic wavelengths contain
important information about the contents of the internal components of
apples and also provide important information for apple ripeness
determination. It was worth noting that in this study, four spectral in­
dexes were also used to reflect the chlorophyll content information of
apples. Compared with the prediction accuracy of the model based on
the characteristic wavelengths, the LDA model based on the spectral
indexes showed large classification error. Because the spectral index
only considers the chlorophyll content and does not consider the
changes of other components during the apple ripening process, deter­
mination of apple maturity must consider all types of comprehensive
information within the apple to achieve better results.
Finally, through analysis of the results of the model, Vis-NIR spec­
troscopy can well distinguish between immature and eatable maturity
apples because there are great differences in the internal substance
contents of the two types of apples and significant differences in the
spectral information. The prediction results also showed that adjacent
maturity samples were more likely to be misclassified, and the samples
misclassified by the RF-SPA-LSSVM model were analyzed. Typically, the
starch indexes of these misclassified samples mostly were difficult to
determine, and their properties were similar, so it is difficult to distin­
guish them by their spectra. In practical application, it is necessary to
combine other quality indicators to determine the maturity of samples
with similar characteristics.
4. Conclusions
Vis-NIR spectroscopy was adopted for classification of maturity level
of bagged ‘Fuji’ apples. In this study, the apples were divided into three
maturity levels based on the starch index. PCA, the RF algorithm, and
RF-SPA were used to extract the principal components or characteristic
wavelengths of the spectral data, and five machine learning algorithms
(LSSVM, ELM, PNN, PLSDA, and LDA) were used to develop apple
maturity classification models. The results were satisfactory. The clas­
sification accuracies of the models were in the range" 84.24%–89.52%.
LDA models based on the spectral indexes also successfully predicted the
apple maturity level. Although there was more prediction error, the
9
Infrared Physics and Technology 111 (2020) 103529
spectral indexes are simple and easy to use, and this is still as an
important direction to realize portable application of Vis-NIR spectros­
copy to apple maturity level recognition. Because the starch index is an
internal index of apples that is not affected by bagging, the methods and
techniques reported in this paper can be applied not only to maturity
determination of bagged ‘Fuji’ apples, but also to maturity determina­
tion of unbagged apples, and they can be used as important tools for
nondestructive apple maturity determination and harvest decision
making. In future work, more apple samples, such as different varieties
of apples from different regions, should be collected to improve the
universality of the model.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (31701664), the Key Research and Development
Program in Shaanxi Province of China (2017ZDXM-NY-017), the Key
Research and Development Program in Shaanxi Province of China
(2019NY-184), the Shaanxi Postdoctoral Science Foundation
(2017BSHEDZZ141), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
(2017M623254), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central
Universities (2452017133). We thank Tim Cooper, PhD, from Liwen
Bianji, Edanz Editing China (www.liwenbianji.cn/ac), for editing the
English text of a draft of this manuscript.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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