Table of contentsSummaryIntroductionDiagramPrototype design parametersInfrared detection circuitPenetration depth and powerInterface of PIC16F18877 to infrared detection circuitIdentificationCircuit descriptionSimulation of PIC interface with IRSimulation module softwareResults and conclusionFuture workReferencesAbstractMillions of tons of food are processed and packaged by people and machines. Therefore, food manufacturers and suppliers may not collect all items that do not belong in the product. When a person consumes a food containing a foreign object, they may suffer physical or emotional injury. This article describes a working prototype that non-destructively identifies the presence of foreign bodies in food products. The infrared sensor module consists of a source and a detector which will detect the presence of a foreign body and thus send the signal to the PIC16F877A microcontroller which will thus indicate the defective and non-defective edible food products with the help of LED indications. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayIntroductionProducing safe food for consumption is not very easy nowadays due to the ever-increasing demand for food and is very prone to external contamination. environment. There is therefore a risk of the presence of one or more foreign bodies in food. These foreign bodies can be dangerous for consumers, even fatal; therefore, food quality control is essential. In the past, mechanical separation methods were used to separate foreign bodies from food. However, there is still no suitable technology for food quality control. This article thus presents a non-destructive detection module to overcome the difficulties encountered in food quality processing using the infrared principle. A study indicates that when almost eight million food products were scanned, more than three thousand products had metal contaminations, either in the form of strips or wires, metal beads and hair clips of various sizes, usually of the order of a millimeter [1]. Additionally, the presence of living organisms that may be undesirable in foods harms food quality. Thus, to ensure food quality, a cost-effective method is necessary. The most commonly used technique to detect foreign bodies in food is to generate ultrasonic waves. These waves are partially reflected on the surface of the foreign body. But the major disadvantage of this technique is that it only works well in acoustic environments, mainly water. This technique is therefore largely suitable for fruits and vegetables only, due to the moisture content present on their surface [2]. However, ultrasound works well for sponges and wood. But it requires correlation with infrared for cardboard and paper-like substances [3]. Additionally, environmental factors create an obstacle to ultrasonic waves by changing their speed by adapting to the environment [4]. Therefore, detection of foreign bodies using infrared radiation is found to be more efficient and economical.SchematicPrototype Design ParametersThe proposed system is designed for non-destructive detection of foreign bodies in food products. The prototype consists of a PIC microcontroller and an infrared detection circuit which isa combination of photodiode and LED. As a result of interfacing the sensor with the PIC microcontroller, some additional functions can be performed by improving the operation of the microcontroller for its effective operation in determining defective and non-defective food products. This prototype design can be used in industries for quality assessment of their final products. Infrared detection circuit An infrared detection circuit consists of an infrared source and an infrared detector. The source is essentially an LED which provides the required infrared radiation. These radiations then reflect and fall onto the detector, which is essentially a photodiode. Depending on the amount of radiation, it provides a threshold value to the microcontroller circuit. This threshold value differs for defective and non-defective products, which is due to the presence of foreign bodies in defective food products. Penetration depth and penetration power The IR sensors are placed at regular intervals on either side of the sample to avoid missing a part. of the sample during analysis. The penetration depth of IR was found to be 1-4 mm and is suitable for detecting foreign bodies. To achieve deeper penetration, we use near infrared light ranging from 750 to 800 nm, which results in higher penetration power. Interface of PIC16F18877 to infrared detection circuit. The output of the IR sensor module is connected to (pin number 2) RA0 of the PIC16F877A. which allows configuring PORTB as input with TRISB registers, and the output which will be displayed on the LED is connected to RD7, RD6, RD5 (pin number 30,29,28) (PORTD) respectively and RB0 (pin number 33) and RB1 (pin number 34) (PORTB) which are defined as output pins. Identification The output of the microcontroller is displayed as follows. When no foreign matter is detected in the given food sample, the LED lights green. When there is the presence of a foreign body in the sample, the LED changes color from green to red. A buzzer is also included in this unit and the buzzer goes off when the LED glows red. Circuit Description The three pins of the infrared detection module are connected to the rest of the circuit. Among the two pins, one is connected to the input power of the module and the other to the GND. The third pin of the infrared module is output from the module which acts as the control pin. This output of the module is connected via the control pin as sensor input to the PIC16F877A microcontroller. The control output of the infrared detection circuit is connected to RA0 (pin number 2) of a PIC16F877A microcontroller and the microcontroller will consider it as a digital input. to read 1 or 0. The microcontroller can read only input voltages (high or low) by configuring the input pins as digital to read 1 or 0 from the sensor. Since the output of the module is digital, we can ignore the use of the ADC in the microcontroller by setting ADCON0bits to 0.ADON=0. This output from the IR detection module will cause the PIC16F877A to respond with a bright LED. Unstable results can be obtained with the default oscillator of 1 MHz, so the microcontroller is set to 8 MHz and thus solves the problem. In the PIC16F877A, the frequency of 8 MHz is obtained by configuring the OSCCON bit settings, that is, setting the OSCCON bits. IRCF0 = 1.Simulation of the PIC interface with IR moduleThe non-defective product will be pre-stored at 1 in the microcontroller. Thus, this pre-recorded value will be compared to the input obtained at the microcontroller level and,.